Contact: Kathleen Campbell, Campbell Public Relations, 877-540-6022, kcampbell@thecompletesolution.com

MEDIA ADVISORY, Nov. 3 /Standard Newswire/ -- The battle over stem cells continues to stir up controversy as Election Day draws near.  In Missouri the controversy over Amendment 2 has become front page news with emotionally charged pleas from Michael J. Fox lending his celebrity to endorse candidates who are proponents of embryonic stem cell research. 

“Missouri’s Amendment 2 reads like something out of a George Orwell novel,” says Dr. Fazale ‘Fuz’ Rana, Vice President of Science apologetics at the science-faith think tank Reasons to Believe, Dr. Rana is an internationally respected biochemist and a recognized expert in origin of life research.

Amendment 2, which claims to ban human cloning, will give researchers a constitutional right to use a procedure called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) to create human embryos and then destroy the embryos for their stem cells.

“It’s a sophisticated shell game of semantics to say that this amendment will ban human cloning,” continues Rana. “Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer is cloning.  This level of dishonesty is jaw dropping--unbelievable bias!” 

SCNT is the same procedure that was used to clone Dolly the sheep.

“Not only is cloning repugnant, but embryonic stem cells offer very little prospect for success,” Rana states. “We so often hear about the potential benefits of embryonic stem cells, but never the pitfalls of this technology.”

Embryonic stem cells tend to form tumors when implanted into tissue, they are susceptible to acute rejection, and are genetically unstable in laboratory culture.

“Ballot initiatives like Missouri’s Amendment 2 are in reality, unnecessary,” continues Dr. Rana.  “Alternative treatments using adult stem cells and cord blood show real promise and have already been tested but due to lack of funding and support from the big pharmaceutical companies and research labs, these therapies are being overlooked. 

“There are groups of people who stand to gain a great deal if Amendment 2 passes.  Unfortunately, it is not those who are ill, suffering or in a wheel chair,” Dr. Rana concludes.  “It’s time we set aside all the politics and emotions--and yes, economics--and start to really care about saving human lives.”

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Fazale Rana, Ph.D. is the vice president for science apologetics at the science/faith think-tank, Reasons To Believe, Rana did his undergraduate work in chemistry at West Virginia State College.  He did his post-graduate studies at Ohio University and earned a Ph.D. in chemistry with an emphasis in biochemistry. He was twice winner of the prestigious Clippinger Research Award at Ohio University.

After completing postdoctoral fellowships at the universities of Virginia and Georgia, he worked for seven years in product development research for Procter & Gamble.  Prior to joining the scholar team at Reasons To Believe in 1999, he published more than 15 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and made more than 20 presentations at international scientific meetings.  Dr. Rana also coauthored a chapter on antimicrobial peptides for Biological and Synthetic Membranes and he holds one patent. 

Since joining Reasons To Believe he has chaired three conferences and has written two books published by NavPress, Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off and the Amazon.com bestseller, Who Was Adam: A Creation Model Approach to the Origin of Man.  He has published numerous articles on the apologetic significance of recent discoveries in the life sciences.  He appears each week on the live Web broadcast, Creation Update, and is a highly popular and frequent guest on a wide variety of nationally/internationally syndicated talk radio and television programs.