Microscopic People: Colorado Amendment Would Declare Fertilized Eggs To Be Persons

A proposed Colorado constitutional amendment would define a fertilized human egg as a person. The Egg-As-Person amendment is set for a vote for November — a ballot initiative that could drive religious voters to the polls to the advantage of John McCain.

The proposed amendment received estimated 103,000 valid signatures — it only required 76,000.

Backer Kristi Burton of Colorado for Equal Rights insists that “Science is on our side.”

The ballot language reads as follows:

Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Colorado:

SECTION 1. Article II of the constitution of the state of Colorado is
amended BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION to read:

Section 31. Person defined. As used in sections 3, 6, and 25 of
Article II of the state constitution, the terms “person” or “persons”
shall include any human being from the moment of fertilization.

If adopted, the measure could have obvious problems for stem cell research and other forms of research. (For full disclosure, I support stem cell research, click here and here). Moreover, it would create some interesting issues in the criminal law. States already prosecute the death of an unborn child as a separate murder count in cases where a pregnant women is killed or harmed. The amendment would suggest that the destruction of a fertilized egg with intent could be murder. It would obviously also raise serious constitutional questions as the new definition of a person collides with the right to choose in the courts.

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