Missouri Lawmaker Files New Resolution Responding to Amendment 2 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 27, 2007
Jefferson City, MO (LifeNews.com) — A Missouri state lawmaker has filed a new resolution responding to Amendment 2, the ballot proposal voters very narrowly approved last fall allowing human cloning for research purposes.
Rep. Jim Lembke, a Republican from St. Louis County, initially filed a resolution in response to the vote that would weaken the constitutional amendment and prohibit all forms of human cloning.
However, the legislation never made it out of the House Health Policy Committee in the state legislature because the panel is split 5-5 on Amendment 2.
Lembke has now filed a new resolution that would take a less comprehensive approach and, he hope, will gain the support of at least one member of the committee so it can move forward.
Amendment 2 prohibited the state legislature from approving any regulations on either cloning or embryonic stem cell research. The new resolution would allow state officials to have a say in funding and regulating the research.
State Rep. Wayne Cooper, a Republican who chairs the panel, said he wouldn’t call up the bill for a hearing until the committee is "lined up in a little different fashion than it’s lined up right now."
Connie Farrow, a spokeswoman for Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, the group that backed the human cloning ballot proposal, blasted Lembke in comments to the Colombia Tribune newspaper.
"Rep. Lembke doesn’t respect the will of voters, and he doesn’t respect the legislative process,” Farrow said. “His political shenanigans are an insult to the intelligence and the integrity of the voters of Missouri and to democracy itself.”
Backed by the Kansas City-based Stowers research institute, Farrow’s group spent $30 million misleading state voters about Amendment 2. The group claimed it prohibited human cloning when it only banned human cloning for reproductive purposes.
