Last night, I attended the Christians Against Human Cloning Rally, held at Life Christian Church and sponsored by Vision America/Missourians for Truth. Speakers included Shao-Chun Chang (professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis), Charles Drury (Hotel Developer), Archbishop Raymond Burke, Rich Bott (executive vice president, Bott Radio Network), Rick Scarborough (President, Vision America), Phyllis Schlafly (Founder and President, Eagle Forum), and Alan Keyes.
Some notable quotes:
“It is wrong to create human life for the purpose of destroying that life.”
— Archbishop Raymond Burke
“The most fundamental premise of our nation is not that we have rights, but that our rights come from God.”
— Dr. Alan Keyes
(Pictures will be available soon.)
UPDATE: See the Flickr photoset for the rally.
Christians Against Human Cloning Rally, Life Christian Church, Saint Louis, 28 August 2006
Photo © Chip Bennett, all rights reserved.
The Post-Dispatch covered the rally. Below are some excerpts from the article.
(St. Loius Archbiship Raymond) Burke, head of the St. Louis Roman Catholic archdiocese, joined other regional and national religious conservatives – from Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly to commentator Alan Keyes – who addressed hundreds who packed the sanctuary at the Life Christian Church, 13001 Gravois Road in south St. Louis County.
“Hundreds“? My estimation was more like 2,000. I was in the balcony, and couldn’t see the entire floor seating area. The Cape Girardeau rally had 300, and gauging by the photo, we had as many in the balcony seating, alone.
(I just called the church to inquire about estimated attendance. Though I didn’t get an actual number, I was informed that the rally was believed to be essentially a “full house”, and the church sanctuary/auditorium holds between 3,000 and 4,000 people. I know the balcony wasn’t entirely full, but the floor seating was.)
Back to the article:
In a telephone interview, (chairman of the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures Donn) Rubin contended that it was the opponents who were spreading untruths. Otherwise, he said, the Cures Coalition wouldn’t have support from more than 100 groups, including research centers, health care groups and patient groups.
We’ll see the most fundamental of your untruths, a couple paragraphs below. And it’s about time I parsed your “factsheet” as well, since every single point listed is a mistruth at best, or a bald-faced lie at worst.
Critics, said Rubin, are “inventing wild claims to distract the public from what we’re really voting on – the right of Missourians to obtain the same medical treatments available in other states.”
The “medical treatments” canard is nothing but a “wild [claim] to distract the public from what we’re really voting on.” Missouri’s access to medical treatments available in other states has never been in question, and likely will never be in question. In the far-off (and, in all reality, unlikely) event that a human treatment derived from embryonic stem cells ever becomes available, the location of the research into that treatment will not determine the location of the application of such a treatment. The availability of such a treatment will depend only upon the availability of access to the stem cell line from which such treatment was developed.
At the rally, opponents emphasized that much of the debate centers on a procedure known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, or therapeutic cloning.
Under that procedure, the nucleus of an unfertilized human egg is replaced with the nucleus of another human cell. Opponents say it is a form of human cloning and cite the use of the procedure to clone Dolly the sheep. The Lifesaving Cures Coalition says the procedure is not cloning and cites the proposed amendment’s specific ban against implanting such an egg in a womb.
And here it is: the number one, most fundamental, outright, bald-faced lie of the Coalition. By definition Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) is cloning; cloning is SCNT. The two terms are interchangeable.
In genetics, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a technique for cloning.
…
This technique is currently the basis for cloning animals, such as the famous Dolly the sheep, and could theoretically be used to clone humans. Scientists at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute are currently researching a technique to use somatic cell nuclear transfer to produce embryonic stem cells.
For human cells, no other method exists as a viable means of cloning.
Even your own supporters recognize and admit this truth. From your own website:
Let us freely admit that the procedure used to produce human stem cells for research is cloning, but not in any way part of a process for creating human babies. The distinction should be clear.
The distinction is clear, but it is also irrelevant. Your Coalition is promoting Amendment 2, specifically stating that the amendment “bans human cloning” – yet, you never reveal that the amendment uses a conjured definition of “cloning” not recognized anywhere else, nor do you point out that the amendment actually prohibits the banning of human cloning – that is, cloning according to the proper usage of the term.
So, which side is it, again, using distractions and spreading untruths?
Back to the article:
Scarborough said the number of Missouri rallies would depend on how much money can be raised to pay for them. So far, each rally has cost close to $20,000. That includes Keyes’ speaking fee of $2,500.
The Lifesaving Cures’ leaders point to the payments as evidence that Keyes and Scarborough may have financial motives. Scarborough said he was offended by such talk, and added that Keyes’ payment was a fraction of his usual speaking fee.
Let’s compare rallies, shall we?
How much do you want to wager that the Coalition Rally held at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Jefferson City, with its Hollywood glitz, busloads of “hundreds” (er, make that, about 150) attendees from across the state, red-carpet treatment of speakers, and applause cues cost more than the Christians Against Human Cloning rallies? To wit (emphasis added):
From their state-of-the-art audio/visual equipment to the busloads of backers brought to town from across the state, it was clear supporters of an effort to amend Missouri’s constitution to protect embryonic stem cell research spared no expense at a Monday morning campaign kickoff rally.
With an audience of nearly 150 proponents at the Capitol Plaza Hotel prompted to applaud on cue and a podium of speakers from the political to the poignant, the rally in favor of the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative had the look and feel of a television talk show.
Are you going to imply, with a straight face, that all of the Coalition’s speakers are speaking without compensation? Further, what of the over ten million dollars in Coalition support from the Stowers Institute? Would you actually lead to believe that this investment is made without an expectation of a return? Follow the money, indeed!
See also: LifeNews coverage.