Stem cell ‘education' group's web site filled with obvious plagiarism and false information

September 26, 2006

A new advocacy group called the Michigan Citizens for Stem Cell Research and Cures (MCSCRC) was launched on September 19 with a press conference featuring such dignitaries as U.S. Senator Carl Levin and Rep. Joe Schwarz. This organization claims they are "dedicated to the long-term goal of educating our state's residents on stem cell research." However, a review of the group's web site by Right to Life of Michigan found that large portions of the MCSCRC's web site have been plagiarized word for word from a variety of other web sites without citing these web sites as sources. The review also found that the plagiarized information provided by the MCSCRC also contain claims which are clearly false.

Board members of the MCSCRC includes researchers from a number of universities in Michigan, members of a variety of research advocacy groups and Grand Rapids' Mayor George Heartwell, among others. Their advisory committee includes Governor Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Senator Carl Levin, Congressman Joe Schwarz, and State Representative Andrew Meisner.

Barbara Listing, President of Right to Life of Michigan, said, "As a former teacher, I'm deeply disappointed that an organization led by so many state leaders like Governor Granholm would create a web site which contains false information plagiarized from other web sites. The governor has made this a campaign issue and is advising an organization which is peddling empty promises and exploiting desperately ill people."

The MCSCRC's web site contains a number of false claims which were plagiarized from the University of Kansas Medical Center's web site. These claims include the claim that somatic cell nuclear transfer was able to create a cloned human embryo in 2004 and the claim that all 400,000 human embryos which are frozen at in-vitro fertilization clinics are "unwanted" and "no longer needed for fertility purposes."

Listing said, "How can an organization which plagiarizes and promotes unquestionably false information help Michigan's citizens become ‘well-informed' on stem cell research? The Michigan Citizen for Stem Cell Research and Cures' web site exposes them as a misleading advocacy organization which is so uninformed of current events they weren't aware the South Korean cloning experiments were fraudulent."

Right to Life of Michigan is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian, nonprofit organization of diverse and caring people united to peacefully protect the precious gift of human life from fertilization to natural death.