{"id":1027,"date":"2008-10-29T17:27:22","date_gmt":"2008-10-29T17:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2008\/10\/embryonic-stem-cell-measure-dr.php"},"modified":"2008-10-29T17:27:22","modified_gmt":"2008-10-29T17:27:22","slug":"embryonic-stem-cell-measure-dr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/10\/embryonic-stem-cell-measure-dr","title":{"rendered":"Embryonic Stem Cell Measure Draws Big Bucks in Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) The hottest campaign in Michigan this fall features no candidate, but an embryo.<br \/>\nIn the fight over Proposal 2, advocates and opponents are spending millions to shape voter opinion on a proposal to loosen current restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in the state.<br \/>\nIn West Michigan, Amway co-founder Richard DeVos has given $200,000 to fight the proposal to free up state funds for the research, according to recent campaign finance statements.<br \/>\nMeanwhile, Pete Wege, the retired Steelcase executive, pitched in with $100,000 to Cure Michigan, the committee trying to pass the Nov. 4 ballot issue to expand the research.<br \/>\nRecords show more than $7.5 million had been spent statewide through Oct. 19 promoting or attacking the proposed amendment. Most of the cash raised by the two sides is funding weeks of statewide television advertising. In the absence of a bare-fisted fight for president or U.S.<br \/>\nSenate in Michigan, the Proposal 2 campaign is the most contentious statewide political battle of the season.<br \/>\nMichigan is one of three states that bar the destruction of a human embryo for laboratory research purposes. That restricts research in Michigan to stem cell lines created before August 2001 that qualify for federal funding, or to stem cell lines derived from embryos in other states.<br \/>\nProposal 2 would change that. The proposed amendment to Michigan&#8217;s constitution would allow federally regulated research on otherwise discarded Michigan embryos created through in-vitro fertilization and donated by the person receiving the fertility treatment.<br \/>\nProponents argue current state law chills important biomedical research in a state that has committed tens of millions of taxpayer dollars in the past 10 years to build a burgeoning life sciences research industry.<br \/>\nThe amendment would specifically bar state and local laws that &#8220;discourage&#8221; such research and allow any embryo research permitted by federal law to be conducted in Michigan, as is the case in 47 other states.<br \/>\n<em>By Ted Roelofs and Peter Luke<br \/>\nCopyright 2008 Religion News Service.  All rights reserved.  No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) The hottest campaign in Michigan this fall features no candidate, but an embryo. In the fight over Proposal 2, advocates and opponents are spending millions to shape voter opinion on a proposal to loosen current restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in the state. In West Michigan, Amway co-founder Richard DeVos&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Embryonic Stem Cell Measure Draws Big Bucks in Michigan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/10\/embryonic-stem-cell-measure-dr\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Embryonic Stem Cell Measure Draws Big Bucks in Michigan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) The hottest campaign in Michigan this fall features no candidate, but an embryo. In the fight over Proposal 2, advocates and opponents are spending millions to shape voter opinion on a proposal to loosen current restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in the state. In West Michigan, Amway co-founder Richard DeVos&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/10\/embryonic-stem-cell-measure-dr\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-10-29T17:27:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Embryonic Stem Cell Measure Draws Big Bucks in Michigan","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/10\/embryonic-stem-cell-measure-dr","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Embryonic Stem Cell Measure Draws Big Bucks in Michigan","og_description":"GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) The hottest campaign in Michigan this fall features no candidate, but an embryo. In the fight over Proposal 2, advocates and opponents are spending millions to shape voter opinion on a proposal to loosen current restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in the state. In West Michigan, Amway co-founder Richard DeVos&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/10\/embryonic-stem-cell-measure-dr","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2008-10-29T17:27:22+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/10\/embryonic-stem-cell-measure-dr","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/10\/embryonic-stem-cell-measure-dr","name":"Embryonic Stem Cell Measure Draws Big Bucks in Michigan","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-10-29T17:27:22+00:00","dateModified":"2008-10-29T17:27:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/10\/embryonic-stem-cell-measure-dr#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/10\/embryonic-stem-cell-measure-dr"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/10\/embryonic-stem-cell-measure-dr#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Embryonic Stem Cell Measure Draws Big Bucks in Michigan"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. From fashion to faith and the journey isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t over yet\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/nsymmonds"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}