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Dear fellow Missourians,
This letter is to inform all the people who worked toward the defeat on Amendment 2. Do not give up! Actually, Southeast Missouri counties defeated the amendment by about 25,000 votes. When things get tough, the tough get going!
Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson has voted to use federal tax money to support embryonic stem cell research, our Gov. Matt Blunt who also opposes a ban on human cloning and Sen. Claire McCaskill who also supports tax money being used for embryonic stem cell research. We should stress members of the coalition against human cloning is 100 percent for stem cell research and funding is available for this research now. All the researchers have to do is apply for this funding. As mentioned before the elections, it's all about money and cloning. Keeping this in mind, we should be concerned and interested in stopping funding for the purpose of destroying the embryo for stem cell research. Researchers are now developing promising new techniques to produce stem cells similar in nature to those derived from human embryos, but without requiring the use of embryos.
Over the past six years, more than $130 million in taxpayer dollars has been devoted to human embryonic stem cell research consistent with the President's policy. Overall, nearly $3 million has gone to innovative research on all forms of stem cells, contributing to dozens of proven medical treatments. However, House bill H.R.3 is passed it would provide federal funding for the first time for a line research that involves the intentional destruction of living human embryos for the derivation of their cells.
Destroying nascent human life for research raises serious ethical problems, and millions of Americans consider the practice immoral. Many Missourians who were misled by the ballot language into voting yes and now regret the vote. We know that as more and more Missourians realize Amendment 2 actually enshrines human cloning in the Missouri Constitution, exploits and endangers young women and opens the door to taxpayer funding of human cloning research. Citizens will oppose everything Amendment 2 has done to our constitution, our families and to our pocketbooks.
We encourage you and your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers to join in our coalition. It is important that we continue to grow as a coalition and influence more and more or our fellow Missourians to join the church of a your choice, start a neighbor group, talk to different organizations, anything you can think of to create excitement about the upcoming March 7 coalition rally at the State Capitol in Jefferson City. Now is the time to take our message to our northern friends so begin and prepare, rent a bus for a large group, start a convoy, spread the word by talking or writing letters to the editor.
Last week on CBS, a news story told about a calf that was born with two faces. The calf was a product of artificial insemination (cloning). The researchers even said they were trying to create the perfect animal. What if this happens to a human? Would we kill it while the mother is still carrying it? Or perhaps we would kill it just as it was being born. We as Missourians can certainly see where Amendment 2 is headed if we do nothing.
You can help by encouraging potential coalition members to join Missourians Against Human Cloning. Join MAHC by visiting www.nocloning.org and clicking "Get Involved
Clem Scheffer Jr.