Why are proponents pushing Amendment 2 so hard?

I had a motime email sent to me asking the exact question that is the title of this blog entry above. It seemed like both a prudent question and a question that maybe most people are not asking themselves. So, why are proponents pushing Amendment 2 so hard? The simple answer is money!

There are numerous financial gains that can be made by the passage of this amendment both for individuals and businesses. The major companies and research institutions are seeing dollar signs because this amendment would bring them millions upon millions of dollars in profit. Patents, new drugs and the sale of new embryonic stem-cell lines are just a few of the money trees that this amendment would bring. There is an excellent article on the Missouri Right to Life web site that points this out. 

There are also individual gains to be had. For example, persons can be given huge sums of money for selling their eggs. Proponents of this amendment say that this is absolutely untrue and that the bill specifically bans this. They point to paragraph 2, subsection 4 in the legislation that says:

No person may, for valuable consideration, purchase or sell human blastocysts or eggs for stem cell research or stem cell therapies and cures.

These proponents, however, have written this statement so that it is completely misleading and full of double-talk. Let me explain. If you read paragraph 6, subsection 17 of the document you will see the term valuable consideration defined as:

"Valuable consideration" means financial gain or advantage, but does not include reimbursement for reasonable costs incurred in connection with the removal, processing, disposal, preservation, quality control, storage, transfer, or donation of human eggs, sperm, or blastocysts, including lost wages of the donor. Valuable consideration also does not include the consideration paid to a donor of human eggs or sperm by a fertilization clinic or sperm bank, as well as any other consideration expressly allowed by federal law.

Basically, if the research institution cannot compensate the women, they simply have a fertility clinic obtain the eggs, pay the donor (which often is a substantial sum of money) and then they "reimburse" the clinic for the costs of obtaining the eggs which, by dancing around the wording of the legislation, includes reimbursing the money put out by the clinic as payment to the donor.

It the use and "definition" of a number of words in the document that mislead and even circumvent the true purposes of what they wish to do. Money is a leading factor in this amendment, which is why these major institutes, research centers and fertility clinics are strongly supporting this legislation. Unfortunately, the dignity of life is being sold out literally by greed. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 21:53 | link | comments |
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