Missouri cloning industry trails in vote totals

Missouri voters were giving a "thumbs-down" to a proposal that would enshrine the right to clone embryos for "research" in the state constitution in the state's early returns.

Officials with a group campaigning against the proposal said the "no" votes were leading the "yes" votes by 50,000 early in the night.

Spokesman Sam Lee, a longtime pro-life activist and lobbyist, told WND that the coalition is pleased so far.

"We're pleased that this represents the hard work of thousands of people to defeat this attempt to put human cloning in our constitution," he said. "We're hopeful enough Missouri voters were not fooled by the deception of supporters of Amendment 2."

Jim Caviezel, star of "The Passion of the Christ"

A television ad prepared by Missourians Against Human Cloning featured "The Passion of the Christ" star Jim Caviezel and other celebrities asking voters not to be deceived by the pro-amendment advertising.

The 2,000-word proposal was billed as a "cloning ban" by its supporters. However, the document itself shows the only human cloning it bans is the actual production of a living human being from a clone, and it actually enshrines in the state constitution the right to clone human embryos for "research" purposes.

Jaci Winship, spokeswoman for the campaign, said that besides Caviezel, Patricia Heaton, of "Everybody Loves Raymond" and Kansas City Royals' Mike Sweeney opposed the cloning plan.

"These are people who have been wanting to be involved, wanting to know what they could to do help," Winship told WND. "They pulled this together, and they speak about Amendment 2 in their own words."

Actor Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, had promoted the cloning research as a potential for phenomenal cures for many diseases, but later said he didn't actually read the proposal and didn't know what it did.

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Previous stories:

Michael J. Fox admits he hasn't read cloning measure

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