The leading stem cell advocacy group is denouncing a House committee vote Tuesday to advance a resolution designed to overturn the stem cell initiative that voters approved in November.
"The simple fact that this joint resolution is even being considered in the state legislature is an insult to the intelligence and the integrity of the voters of Missouri and to democracy itself," said 23-year-old Kansas City resident Jeff McCaffrey, who suffered a spinal cord injury in a 2002 car accident shortly after being accepted to the U.S. Air Force Academy. “Patients shouldn’t have to go before lawmakers and plead for their right to access a cure.”
The release from the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures accuses House Health Policy Committee Chairman Rep. Wayne Cooper of "exploiting the absence of a committee member opposed to House Joint Resolution 11 by calling for a vote without any advance notice."
Spokeswoman Connie Farrow said it allowed stem cell opponents to tip the vote in their favor. The committee had been deadlocked at 5-to-5, effectively sidetracking the proposed resolution to repeal the Stem Cell Initiative and ban federally approved stem cell research in Missouri, according to Farrow.
The resolution is sponsored by Rep. Jim Lembke.
“This is shameful politics. Rather than holding a vote when all committee members were present, the chairman lay in wait to thwart the will of Missouri voters by exploiting the absence of a committee member,” said Donn Rubin, chairman of Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures.
“Rep. Lembke falsely claims his resolution will ban ‘human cloning.’ Voters already banned human cloning when they passed the Stem Cell Initiative. The proposed resolution is part of the continuing effort by some extreme legislators to push their real agenda of outlawing stem cell research.”
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