Tim_Skubick's Blog

A weird thing is happening in the emotional battle over embryonic stem cell research which is Prop 2 on the November ballot.

One side is trying to extricate the emotion from the public discourse, but is fanning emotions below the radar.   

For years Right to Life of Michigan and the Michigan Catholic Conference have been fought this human research.   

Lobbyists Ed Rivet and Paul Long want to save human life and their side has been winning. 

So when the proponents obtained enough petition signatures to end-run the Right to Life dominated legislature, everyone in town braced themselves for a repeat of the life and death debate.     

However when the first anti-Prop 2 commercial showed up, viewers were told if Prop 2 passed, more of their tax dollars could be spent which has been the case in other states.  

Where was the argument about the sanctity of life?

Now that may show up later on, but it looks like the anti-folks have done some research and discovered that voters are sympathetic to conducting this laboratory work especially if it produces hope for curing some diseases or preventing them down the road.   

Hence rather than argue the merits of the issue, the other side has chosen to argue money instead. 

The anti-campaign has even gone so far as to tell Messer’s Long and Rivet to stop talking to the media.  Somewhat sheepishly, campaign spokesperson David Doyle admits that he “probably” shared that advice with the two life lobbyists.

Some call that a gag order.  Mr. Doyle calls it a good strategy and it is. He also argues the other side is blocking reporters from sources, but it denies the charge.

Meanwhile in a private mailing to Right to Life supporters, the message is strikingly different.

Can you say Dr. Frankenstein? 

In one newsletter, there is a reference to the 1931 Frankenstein movie. Well this document says the BBC has reported research that has created “part human, part animal hybrid embryos….” which might lead to “para humans” or “quasi-humans.”   

RTL President Barb Listing concludes the mailing saying, “We cannot allow these modern day Frankenstein’s to turn unborn children into laboratory rats…not on our watch.”

Mr. Doyle contends the Frankenstein stuff is not over the top.

He points to a U of M document that asks questions about transplanting human embryos into an animal embryo and whether the “resulting creature would exhibit human characteristics that would be ethically unacceptable to find in an animal?”  

“That’s a scare tactic,” counters U of M spokesperson Robin Stevenson.  She contends that the other side is trying to create the false impression that this “highly regulated and useful research for building knowledge is monstrous.”  Plus the U of M is not now engaged in that science according to another source.     

If this is the level of rhetoric now, imagine what it will sound like just before November 4th.