Missouri Constitutional Amendment 2 (2006)
Encyclopedia
Missouri Constitutional Amendment 2 (The Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative) is a state constitutional amendment initiative that concerns stem cell
Stem cell
This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...

 research and human cloning
Human cloning
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...

 in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

. It would allow any stem cell research and therapy in Missouri that is legal under federal law, including somatic cell nuclear transfer
Somatic cell nuclear transfer
In genetics and developmental biology, somatic-cell nuclear transfer is a laboratory technique for creating a clonal embryo, using an ovum with a donor nucleus . It can be used in embryonic stem cell research, or, potentially, in regenerative medicine where it is sometimes referred to as...

 to produce human embryo
Embryo
An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...

s for stem cell production; it prohibits cloning or attempting to clone a human being, which is defined to mean "to implant in a uterus or attempt to implant in a uterus anything other than the product of fertilization of an egg of a human female by a sperm of a human male for the purpose of initiating a pregnancy that could result in the creation of a human fetus, or the birth of a human being." It appeared on the ballot for the November 2006 general election
United States general elections, 2006
The 2006 United States midterm elections were held on Tuesday, November 7, 2006. All United States House of Representatives seats and one third of the United States Senate seats were contested in this election, as well as 36 state governorships, many state legislatures, four territorial...

 and passed with 51% of the votes. This issue became especially intertwined with the Senate election with the Republican and Democratic candidates on opposite sides of the issue.

Support

The organization that led the movement to get the initiative on the ballot and later supported its adoption is called The Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures. The measure was proposed to stop repeated attempts by the Missouri Legislature to ban certain types of stem cell research, namely SCNT. During the 2006 election, Claire McCaskill
Claire McCaskill
Claire Conner McCaskill is the senior United States Senator from Missouri and a member of the Democratic Party. She defeated Republican incumbent Jim Talent in the 2006 U.S. Senate election, by a margin of 49.6% to 47.3%. She is the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri in her own...

, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, supported the measure. McCaskill unseated Senator Jim Talent
Jim Talent
James Matthes "Jim" Talent is an American politician and former senator from Missouri. He is a Republican and resided in the St. Louis area while serving in elected office. He identifies with the conservative wing of the Republican party, being particularly outspoken on judicial appointments,...

, who opposed the measure, the same night that the amendment passed.

During the 2006 World Series, which was partially held in St. Louis, a television ad featuring actor Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox, OC is a Canadian American actor, author, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy ; Alex P...

 aired. While Fox was by name supporting McCaskill, and the ad was paid for by McCaskill's campaign, the primary reason Fox gave for his support was that McCaskill supported stem cell research. The advertisement was controversial because Fox was visibly suffering tremors, the most visible symptom of the side effects of the medications used to treat Parkinson's Syndrome
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...

. Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...

, a conservative radio host, criticized Fox for allowing himself to have been used by special interests supporting the measure. Limbaugh criticized the uncontrollable movements that Fox made in the commercial, and claimed that it was Fox had either deliberately stopped taking his medication or was feigning his tremors.

Opposition

The coalition organization that led the opposition to the initiative was called Missourians Against Human Cloning. Jim Talent
Jim Talent
James Matthes "Jim" Talent is an American politician and former senator from Missouri. He is a Republican and resided in the St. Louis area while serving in elected office. He identifies with the conservative wing of the Republican party, being particularly outspoken on judicial appointments,...

, an incumbent Republican US Senator facing re-election, has opposed the measure.

Those opposed to the Amendment also include many who disagree with wording in the amendment. They argued that the measure does not actually ban human cloning, but merely the attempt to implant cloned embryos into a human uterus. This has caused some people who are opposed to human cloning to be opposed to the Amendment. Some believe that the Amendment actually redefines human cloning from the commonly accepted scientific definition. Some opponents also believe that the Amendment includes vague language that could be interpreted by courts to make government funding of embryonic stem cell research a constitutional right (particularly the language in major sections 5 and 7 of the full-text of the Amendment link listed in "External Links"). Other opponents felt that this type of legislation is best handled through the legislative process carried out by the elected officials rather than by amending the state Constitution. Finally, stem cell research was legal in Missouri prior to the passing of the amendment.

In rebuttal to the Michael J. Fox advertisement (which never directly mentioned Amendment 2), a television ad with several celebrities appeared in opposition to the measure. At least three of the celebrities opposed the measure for religious reasons: Kurt Warner
Kurt Warner
Kurtis Eugene "Kurt" Warner is a retired American football player. He played quarterback for three National Football League teams: the St. Louis Rams, the New York Giants, and the Arizona Cardinals. He was originally signed by the Green Bay Packers as an undrafted free agent in 1994 after playing...

, former St. Louis Rams
St. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams are a professional American football team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are currently members of the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Rams have won three NFL Championships .The Rams began playing in 1936 in Cleveland,...

 quarterback; Kansas City Royals
Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are a Major League Baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals are a member of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From 1973 to the present, the Royals have played in Kauffman Stadium...

 baseball player Mike Sweeney
Mike Sweeney
Michael John "Mike" Sweeney is a former Major League Baseball first baseman. Sweeney played his first 13 seasons in the majors with the Kansas City Royals, originally as a catcher and then moving to first base. Sweeney has also played for the Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, and Philadelphia...

, and James Caviezel
James Caviezel
James Patrick Caviezel, Jr. is an American film actor, usually credited as Jim Caviezel. He is known for the roles of Jesus Christ in the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, Bobby Jones in Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, Detective John Sullivan in Frequency, Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte...

, who played Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 in The Passion of the Christ
The Passion of the Christ
The Passion of the Christ is a 2004 American drama film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus. It depicts the Passion of Jesus largely according to the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John...

 speaking apparently Aramaic in the spot. Patricia Heaton
Patricia Heaton
Patricia Helen Heaton is an American actress, comedienne, producer and model, best known for portraying Debra Barone on the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond from 1996 to 2005, for which she won two Emmy Awards....

 from Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody Loves Raymond is an American television sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005. Many of the situations from the show are based on the real-life experiences of lead actor Ray Romano, creator/producer Phil Rosenthal and the show's writing staff...

 appeared on grounds that low-income women would be exploited for their eggs. Jeff Suppan
Jeff Suppan
Jeffrey Scot Suppan , is a Major League Baseball pitcher, who is currently a free agent.-Baseball career:Suppan was drafted out of high school by the Boston Red Sox in the second round of the 1993 amateur draft, and rapidly ascended to the Majors making his debut at the age of 20...

, a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals have won eleven World Series championships, the most of any National League team, and second overall only to...

also appeared in opposition to the amendment.

Public sentiment

Many pollsters noted that public feelings for the initiative changed with the support for the different US Senate candidates. However, during most of the pre-election period, Amendment 2 had a majority of voter support. This support began to wane after the Michael J. Fox commercial. Some have tied this to the backlash against the commercial, while others have tied this to the rising poll numbers of Republican candidate Jim Talent, who was opposed to the measure.

As election day drew near, public support seemed to be shifting away from Amendment 2. Polls had shown support as high as 68% in favor of the Amendment. As of October 29, 2006. Support had fallen to just 51% with 35% opposed .

On November 7, 2006, Amendment 2 passed with a margin of 2.4% (50,800 votes). The final tally of votes ended in 51.2% for yes and 48.8% for no . The measure failed in the southern part of the state but picked up enough votes in St. Louis, Kansas City, and Columbia (and their surrounding counties) to pass statewide.

External links

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