It’s a rare scenario when millions of people around the country suddenly give a crap about Missouri politics, but that’s currently the situation. On Election Day, Missouri voters will be asked to either progress a great scientific cause or join the ranks of a group of self-interested lunatics who aim to kick science in the face with a steel-toed, red Kodiak work boot.

Lunatic is a fairly harsh word to describe a group of people, but it’s appropriately placed when you consider what’s at stake. Missouri voters are voting on an amendment that would make it okay for researchers to conduct stem cell research within the state. It would also make any stem cell cures or therapies available to Missouri residents.

So yeah, anyone against that is a lunatic. The ad that sparked so much controversy involved Michael J. Fox supporting senatorial candidate Claire McCaskill because of her support for the stem cell measure. In the ad, Fox was obviously suffering the clear effects of Parkinson’s disease. If it isn’t bad enough to see Marty McFly in bad shape, then the cherry thrown on top is hearing the human swine, Rush Limbaugh, accuse him of faking the effects for a sympathy plea.

The basic argument that is placed against stem cell research is that one would have to destroy an embryo to create an embryonic stem cell line for research. Opponents of stem cell research claim that it violates the rights of the “person” and equates to murder. The murder that they are talking about is the murder of eight cells that form within the first four days of conception.

The majority of stem cell research done today is done on stem cells that were created for in vitro fertility treatments and never used. They will either be destroyed or shelved indefinitely. If destroying them is murder, then is shelving them forever considered kidnapping? I think we might wanna watch out for these shady scientists.

This may not be a popular belief, but not all human life is sacred. Four days worth of cells is a chemical reaction, not a being that is capable of being murdered. When it was declared that Terry Schiavo had no chance of regaining a real sense of consciousness, she had life, but was no longer living. Daniel Rolling, the serial killer who was recently executed in Florida also forfeited any sense of sacredness his life may have held when he committed the violent crimes he committed.

The truly sacred life on this planet should be given the opportunity to live lives as fruitful and fulfilling as possible. And if stem cell research can help those with debilitating diseases and life altering ailments then that research should be pushed to its fullest extent, regardless of who claims to hold the moral high ground.

It was Abraham Lincoln who said that in the end, its not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.