Illinois' governor funds human cloning while saying he's not funding human cloning

Illinois' governor, Rod Blagojevich, issued an executive order yesterday ordering the "Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health shall develop an Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute (IRMI) program within the department that will provide for the awarding of grants to medical research facilities for the development of finding treatments and cures from stem cell research."

This Institute will "award $10 million in grants to medical research facilities for the development of treatments and cures."

This press release announced, "The Executive Order also mandates that no funding will be authorized for research involving human cloning...."

But wait a second. The executive order clearly states:

2. The IRMI program shall provide funding for stem cell research that involves adult stem cells, cord blood stem cells, pluripotent stem cells, totipotent stem cells, progenitor cells, the product of somatic cell nuclear transfer or any combination of those cells. (emphasis added)

Somatic cell nuclear transfer is the scientific terminology for cloning.

So how does Blagojevich get away with saying he's not funding the cloning of humans when his executive order clearly states that he is?

His executive order continues:

3. No funds authorized or made available under the IRMI program shall be used for research involving the reproductive cloning of a human being, fetuses from induced abortions or to create embryos through the combination of gametes solely for the purpose of research. As used in this Executive Order, "cloning of a human being" means asexual human reproduction by implanting or attempting to implant the product of nuclear transplantation into a woman's uterus to initiate a human pregnancy.

Oh, that's how. You just redefine what "cloning of a human being" means to fit your desired ends and fool the unsuspecting public. Just imagine the wordsmith of the above paragraph trying to come up with this ridiculous definition of human cloning but struggling not to mention that the actual cloning of a human being has already taken place.

"....implanting or attempting to implant a human clone cloned embryo cloned blastocyst cloned product product of cloning product of nuclear transplantation......

Yes, that works. The average joe won't know that 'product of nuclear transplantation' really means 'cloned human being.' Where's my pat on the back, Rod?"

How sad is it that the leader of a state doesn't have guts to admit to the people that elected him what he is doing with their money?

What is also notable is that the executive won't fund research "to create embryos through the combination of gametes solely for the purpose of research." So why is it okay to fund research on human embryos created through cloning solely for the purpose of research yet not fund research which creates human embryos solely for the purpose of research?

HT: Jill Stanek