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URGENT - PROPOSITION 73 MAY CRIMINALIZE STEM CELL RESEARCH If you live in California, know someone who lives in California, or if you just plain support stem cell research, this concerns you. If you follow the column www.stemcellbattles.com, you know we are very concerned about a new initiative: Proposition 73, the "Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor's Pregnancy Initiative Constitutional Amendment" on the California special election ballot just a few days from now. The bill sounds reasonable, at first. What parent would not want to know about something so hugely important (and tragic) as their child's abortion? The bill contains a poison pill: language which defines abortion as the "death of the unborn child, a child conceived but not yet born," (emphasis added)--and would place that new definition of life into the California State Constitution. If microscopic cells can be legally defined as a child, scientists doing embryonic stem cell research could be said to be murdering a person. This insanity could stop the research altogether: or cause years of litigation and delay, as the case winds its way through the courts, all the way to an increasingly conservative Supreme Court. But remember that the California stem cell program has already been sued on behalf of "Jane Doe", a fictional embryo. That case was recently dismissed, but it can and probably will be brought again in another court. It is ridiculous; but it could ruin everything. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn