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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2008 /  Election ballot

by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published July 11, 2008

Detroit — Be careful what you vote for.

That may well be the message the Church and major pro-life organizations will help spread this election cycle when it comes to a ballot proposal on embryo-destructive research.

This week, a group called Cure Michigan, by collecting more than a half-million signatures, placed a petition on Michigan's November ballot which will propose to voters an amendment to the state constitution. The amendment aims to prohibit restrictions to research on living human embryos.

The Church will urge a "no" vote on the amendment come November.

Michigan's bishops, who speak on public policy through the Lansing-based Michigan Catholic Conference, have thrown their support behind a new grassroots coalition to defeat the proposed amendment — MiCause (Michigan Citizens Against Unrestricted Scientific Experimentation).

MiCause cautions that promoters of the amendment are being dishonest about what it actually will do to state law — eliminate any restrictions on experimenting on embryos, and open the door to human cloning.

"The goal is to make sure people understand this proposal," said David Doyle, spokesman for MiCause, which is headquartered in Lansing. "It's very deceptive, very cleverly worded. If this is passed, what it will lead to is complete, unrestricted, unregulated experimentation on human embryos, and I don't think people understand that.

"The key in these things is what's in fine print, and what's in fine print here is very different than what they tell you. Most of us wouldn't sign mortgage papers if the people tell you 'Just ignore the fine print. Just trust me' — that's what they're trying to do on this."

Doyle, who is Catholic, also says that those promoting the constitutional amendment appear to imply that embryonic stem-cell research is not already legal in Michigan. In fact, it is. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor even has 40 scientists working at its Human Embryonic Stem Cell Center for such research.

Cure Michigan, which did not respond to requests for comment, is making its argument for the legislation by featuring people with such diseases as paralysis and Parkinson's, and perpetuating the notion that embryo-destroying research is "life saving" for such people.

The Church, on the other hand, has tried to educate its faithful on the truths about embryonic stem-cell research, which are seldom seen in traditional media:

• Decades of embryonic stem-cell research — which kills a living human being in its earliest stages of development — has failed to produce cures or treatments for such diseases.

• Adult stem cell research, which does not destroy human life and which has resulted in about 70 treatments of various diseases, is encouraged by the Church.

Last year, the Michigan Catholic Conference distributed a DVD statewide describing the science behind the two types of stem-cell research, and explaining why embryonic stem-cell research poses an assault on human life and the dignity befitting of it. The Catechism of the Catholic Church also states: "Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being" (2274).

In addition, recent scientific progress has yielded promising alternatives to embryo-destroying research. For example, stem cells from the blood of umbilical cords can be used for many of the same purposes as embryonic stem cells. Scientists also have found that "reprogrammed" adult skin cells — called induced pluripotent stem cells — can be used in the same way as embryonic stem cells, and do not require the destruction of human beings.

Another argument made in promotional materials for Cure Michigan is that the embryos that will be destroyed in research currently are being discarded for medical waste, anyway. The Church has long held, however, that actions that would create "excess embryos" — such as in vitro fertilization — are immoral to begin with because they intentionally create human lives that are bound for destruction. And currently, Doyle says, there are no laws in Michigan to restrict the treatment of embryos at fertility clinics.

"Fertility clinics in Michigan are, right now, completely unregulated," he says. "This (the proposed amendment) would allow them to continue to be unregulated."

Like several of the spokespeople supporters of the amendment intend to put on the airwaves while campaigning for the amendment, Doyle himself has a vested interest in cures. Ten years ago, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease in which the immune system attacks the body's nervous system, often resulting in physical and cognitive disability.

"Like everyone else, I'd like to see cures," Doyle says. "But I don't think this is the way to do it. And I don't think being deceptive about your constitutional amendment is the right way to go about this."

Besides, he adds, those looking for cures have seen much more promise from the use of adult stem cells.

"That's where all the progress has been in terms of cures," he says.