Keeping Up With the Cloners

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell Research, Cloning, iPSC Breakthrough, Science2 Comments

The dishonesty of the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures did not end with Amendment 2 and Wesley Smith has been doing an excellent job of keeping up with their lies and false accusations. See, More Lies from Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures and The Mendacity of Missouri Coalition for Life Saving Cures

Lately the chairman of MCLC has been using his voice to hail the the recent iPSC breakthrough (because, after all, they support “all forms of stem cell research”) and at the same time arrogantly assert that Amendment 2 opponents would have somehow prevented this breakthrough from happening, if they had their way (see here and here):

If anti-embryonic stem cell research groups had their way, this outstanding science would not have been possible. They would have blocked the very groundwork that led to the reprogramming of ordinary human skin cells into embryonic-like stem cells. If they get their way now, they will block the important research required to bring this new technique to its full lifesaving potential…Those who threaten to repeal Missourians’ access to stem cell research should allow scientists to conduct the work necessary to achieve the goals that I hope we all share: to cure disease and improve the lives of patients and families.

This is absolutely ludicrous since what we’re trying to ban here is human cloning, which had absolutely nothing to do with the iPSC discovery. Either Don Rubin is incredibly ignorant of the scientific facts surrounding the work done on iPSCs, or he is intentionally muddling the truth to advance his own agenda. Based on the nature of his Amendment 2 campaign, my guess, unfortunately, would be the latter. From Smith:

But more to the point of this post, if the opponents of Amendment 2 in MO had gotten 100% of their way, it would not have stopped the development of the new reprogrammed cells, the ESCR theoretical “heart patch,” or the drug testing. None of that work directly or indirectly involved stem cells derived from human cloning (somatic cell nuclear transfer), which has not yet been done in humans. ESCR per se is not the subject of a proposed initiative to outlaw all human cloning in MO and hence all of the research successes Rubin mentions would have been unaffected. Those are scientific facts, not opinion.

It’s a dirty job keeping up with the cloners, but somebody’s got to do it. Thanks Wesley!

2 Comments on “Keeping Up With the Cloners”

  1. Either Don Rubin is incredibly ignorant of the scientific facts surrounding the work done on iPSCs, or he is intentionally muddling the truth to advance his own agenda

    I think he is former- ignorant that is.

  2. I’d really like to believe so. But, as I said, based on the Amendment 2 campaign and just the wording of the amendment alone, I know these are not stupid people. The average people who support them might be ignorant of the facts, but they (Don Rubin and MCLC) definitely are not. They know the difference between human cloning and stem cell research and the fact that the majority of Americans would ban cloning, if given a clear and simple choice. That is why they spent $30 million confusing the actual definition of human cloning in order to equate it with the generic term “stem cell research” and forever enshrine it in our state’s Constitution.

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