Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / New ads educate viewers on Proposal 2
New ads educate viewers on Proposal 2
by Joe Kohn and Kristin Lukowski of The Michigan Catholic
Published October 24, 2008
 Detroit With a week and a half left to go before the election, the Michigan Catholic Conference has rolled out a few new advertisements to educate voters on Proposal 2.
The Church is encouraging its membership to vote "no" Nov. 4 on the ballot measure, which would override any Michigan state law present or future that seeks to place regulations on embryo-destructive research. In short, it would give scientists the unfettered legal right to kill days-old human beings.
The new videos, "Bull" and "In the Name of Good," emphasize both the affect Proposal 2 will have on voters' pocketbooks, as well as on unregulated research, said David Maluchnik, spokesman for the Michigan Catholic Conference, the Church's public policy voice in the state. Both advertisements, as well as others, can be seen at www.2goes2far.com.
"Bull" highlights the semantics used in laws that could possibly confuse voters, and concludes that Proposal 2 is "too costly to Michigan taxpayers." "In the Name of Good" discusses how scientists would be able to conduct research without restrictions, which it concludes has "too much room for too much abuse."
Other videos tell how research could include mixing of animal and human DNA, and how pressure could be put on scientists to find and on women to produce more human embryos.
The Catholic Church promotes dignity, respect, and the legal protection of human life at all stages. It also promotes stem-cell research that does not require the destruction of human life.
Dave Doyle, spokesman for Michigan Citizens Against Unregulated Science and Experimentation (MiCAUSE), a Church-supported coalition established to defeat the ballot proposal, says the hardest part about getting the word out about Proposal 2 is "fighting the deceptive claims of the other side."
Last weekend marked the rollout of a $2 million advertising campaign by the group Cure Michigan, which is hoping to amend Michigan's constitution to allow for unregulated, deadly, and as-yet ineffective research on human embryos. Proponents of embryonic stem-cell research, along with many media outlets, rarely draw any distinction between the various types of stem-cell research. Most types of stem-cell research do not require the destruction of human life. Several such as research with adult and cord blood stem-cells have yielded treatments of various diseases and conditions.
In a decade's time, however, human embryonic stem-cell research which necessitates the destruction of the embryo has yielded no treatments or cures. Many scientists claim that, because of the volatile nature of embryonic stem-cells, cures may be decades off, or may not come at all.
But that doesn't stop groups such as Cure Michigan, or even local news outlets, from putting disease sufferers in front of the public and claiming that their cures potentially could be found in life-destructive research. For example, on a national stage, celebrities Michael J. Fox and the late Christopher Reeve have been spokesmen for embryonic stem-cell research.
Cure Michigan has used the same concept in its new advertising campaign, with people suffering from injury or disease talking about potential cures that could be discovered if Proposal 2 were to be put into place by voters. However, no cures have been found to date.
"Their campaign committee was named Cure Michigan," Doyle says. "If it was honest, it would be named 'We Hope to Cure Michigan Some Day If We Are Completely Unregulated and Unrestricted But We Have No Evidence That There Is Any Light at the End of the Tunnel With Embryonic Stem-Cell Research.'
"But they didn't take my advice."
Maluchnik also pointed out that adult stem-cell treatment "lies in stark contrast to embryonic stem cell research, which has never treated or cured one medical condition."
For its part, MiCAUSE has run advertising spots focusing on the ballot proposal's potential cost to taxpayers, and on the prospect of having companies whose purposes are to farm and destroy human beings.
On Oct. 17, the campaign against Proposal 2 received some encouraging news, too, from a poll conducted by Virginia-based Public Opinion Strategies. Upon asking 600 likely voters, support for Proposal 2 was at 36 percent, while 44 percent opposed the measure. The pollsters simply asked each respondent whether they were likely to vote, then presented them with the ballot's language.
While the opposition currently is ahead, Doyle says many voters have yet to think of the issue, and the emotionally charged advertising campaign could sway those who don't know about embryonic stem-cell research's ineffectiveness and its life-destructive nature.
Among those least likely to vote for the measure, the poll shows, are religious conservatives (18 percent), frequent church-goers (25 percent), and Republicans (25 percent).
"We were pleased that once people started to see the message and pay attention that they have gone from being supporters to opponents," says Doyle. "But we still need that number (of Proposal 2 opponents) over 50 percent so we've got a long way to go."
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