The MO election is over, the cloners have won, and yet the in-the-tank Missouri media continues its boosterism and shilling. This giddy little story, from the St. Louis Post Dispatch, byline Rachel Melcer, is pure hype. It’s Boom Time, folks! Why thanks to Amendment 2, private companies are now going to be pouring into MO ready to do research and pay taxes!
Oh, well, there is the one little problem: There won’t be any commercial use for human cloning and the products derived therefrom for, maybe, decades—if ever. I mean, it hasn’t really been done yet, at least not to the point they could get embryonic stem cells from the cloned embryos. And there is that nasty little egg dearth cloners all over the world are grousing about, making it hard for them to even begin concocting their nascent human creations. Moreover, by the time they do perfect the technology—if they ever can—ethical biotechnological research will have already reached the marketplace and filled many of the commercial and medical niches that are anticipated for cloned embryonic stem cells.
Oh yes, and then there is this: With so few private investors willing to pour the billions needed to pursue cloning research into private cloning companies, it won’t be long before Missouri voters will be told they have to pay for it. Otherwise, how can the Show Me State compete with California, which is pouring $3 billion into human cloning and embryonic stem cell research? After all, why should a company pay to move to MO, when they can be paid to move to CA—and get better weather, besides?
In any event, now the cloners have to produce. But it won’t be easy, and it will be very expensive. The only trouble is: When the crash comes, and I think it will, it won’t be their money that is lost. It will be the taxpayers’.
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