In Missouri, we will be having one of the most important elections in recent years because of our vote on Amendment 2. This amendment is very dangerous, and it seems that there are many forces working to try to get the amendment passed.
Without getting into the details, I'll just say that it's a scary amendment because it not only allows 'therapeutic' cloning (it only bans 'reproductive' cloning...), but it's also bad law. For a detailed analysis of the issue, check out www.nocloning.org.
There is a lot of controversy about a recent television ad aired on FOX with Michael J. Fox lying about certain things having to do with Amendment 2. He said Jim Talent (running for the U.S. senate against Claire McCaskill in our state) is opposed to stem cell research. This, in fact, is a complete lie. Jim Talent, and most other people I know of who are informed on this issue, are very much in support of stem cell research—as long as the scientists don't use human embryos to harvest their stem cells.
You can see an ad that was produced to counter the Michael J. Fox ad on YouTube.
There are many other issues that make this amendment dangerous to our society, including violations of women's rights (women could be compensated financially—i.e. paid—for egg harvesting), the fact that it would alter our state constitution (which can't easily be changed again), and it has very ambiguous wording.