Michigan Voters Approve Embryonic Stem Cell Research Initiative.

Human embryos in Michigan conceived as part of fertility treatments can now be donated by their parents for destructive embryonic stem cell research, according to a constitutional amendment passed by Michigan voters November 4. The initiative expanded previous law that limited such research to existing stem cell lines, according to the Associated Press (AP).

"The passing of Proposal 2 was a sad day for Michigan," Barbara Listing, president of Right to Life of Michigan, told NRL News. "Sad because the voters put fantasy and unrealistic promises ahead of the reality of what human embryo research does to the weakest of their brothers and sisters. Sad because they have now allowed, for the first time, the killing of a human being to be enshrined into our state constitution. Sad because they came down on the side of the ends justify the meansalthough in this case the means are unknown and unproven."

Passed on a 5347% vote, Proposal 2's supporters promised voters that embryonic stem cell research would bring millions of dollars in grants to the state and would result in medical breakthroughs, the AP reported.

Researchers have already begun to plan projects that will destroy embryos for experiments. "I can tell you this: We'll be meeting within the next week ... to expand our embryonic research program," Sean Morrison, director of the University of Michigan Center for Stem Cell Biology, told the AP. "We expect in the short-term millions of new dollars of grants to come from the federal government ...