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Conning Michigan Voters
BY Donald P. Condit, M.D.
October 26-November 1, 2008 Issue |
Posted 10/21/08 at 7:56 AM
Michigan
citizens are seeing a $20 million campaign to deceive them about stem-cell
research. Using misleading rhetoric, the Cure Michigan campaign preys upon
hopeful patients, families and the general public who may lack understanding of
this threat to human dignity at its most vulnerable stage.
On
Nov. 4, 2008, Proposal 2 will seek to change the state constitution. Michigan
law since 1978 prohibits killing human embryos and cloning. Those behind this
effort have been unsuccessful in working through elected representatives to
achieve their goals of unlimited human embryo research and cloning, using the
normal legislative process. This past summer, Cure Michigan paid people, per
signature, to get their constitutional amendment on the ballot. Proponents of
this proposal want taxpayers to support their projects.
Proposal 2 will begin with the words
“Expand use of human embryos for any research.” The last line reads: “Prohibit
state and local laws that prevent, restrict or discourage stem-cell research.”
This gives scientists the right to create and destroy at will using taxpayer
money with no redress.
Scientists have benefited mankind in
countless ways. But when science runs amok, disaster follows. At the end of
World War II, 23 German doctors and scientists were charged with crimes against
classes of humans deemed “unworthy to live,” or “going to die anyway.” Similar
arguments are used today to justify research that kills human embryos. At
Nuremberg in 1947, 16 of the doctors were found guilty and seven were sentenced
to death. We mustn’t create a “reverse Nuremberg” that rewards the same
behavior.
Any suggestion this proposed
constitutional amendment is all about cures is suspicious. Scientists are
already doing human embryonic research here. The University of Michigan Center
for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research website boasts the activity of over 40
researchers and untold students. Some scientists in Michigan stand to
financially gain from stem-cell research through companies formed to profit
from stem-cell research. Californians generously voted for a $3 billion bond
proposal for scientists in 2004. New Jersey and New York taxpayers are paying
for similar research.
Voters should not believe the
deceptive stories about cures from embryonic stem cells. There have not been
any.
Scientists rely upon taxpayer
funding for human embryonic research because it has not led to cures or
treatment. In contrast, promising adult stem-cell research attracts investment.
Adult stem cells do offer considerable potential for disease treatment and do
not require killing human embryos. Techniques are available to change adult
cells into stem cells for research and potential treatment. For example, recent
reports of adult pancreatic cells being changed into insulin producing cells for
diabetes are promising. Stem cells have even been found in wisdom teeth.
The Michigan Citizens Against
Unrestricted Science and Experimentation coalition (MiCause.com) which I help
direct was started by the Michigan Catholic Conference and Right to Life of
Michigan to inform citizens and encourage them to vote No on Proposal 2. Our
efforts follow the U.S. bishops, who in 2007, reiterated Church Tradition that
“direct threats to the sanctity and dignity of human life, such as human
cloning and destructive research on human embryos, are intrinsically evil” and
“must always be opposed.”
Our campaign tells Michigan citizens
that Proposal 2 “goes too far” in allowing unrestricted research on human
embryos and the difference between human embryonic and adult stem-cell
research.
Pope Benedict XVI, in his encyclical Spe Salvi (Christian Hope), wrote, “Every generation has the task of engaging
anew in the arduous search for the right way to order human affairs; this task
is never simply completed. ... Science can contribute greatly to making
the world and mankind more human. Yet, it can also destroy mankind and the
world unless it is steered by forces that lie outside it” (No. 25).
Michigan is a moral battleground this fall. Those seeking to create and
destroy human life, ostensibly in the hope of cures, have an advantage in the
most recent polls. Those committed to the sanctity of life pray in hope.
Donald P. Condit, M.D.,
MBA, is an orthopedic surgeon in Grand Rapids, Mich., and an associate
professor at Michigan State University.
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