Gail Schoettler on Colorado Amendment 48

"An extreme measure." Gail Schoettler took a look at Amendment 48, also called the Personhood Amendment, in Wednesday's Denver Post.

If a woman diagnosed with cancer has a fertilized egg, this measure would deny her treatment.

. . . This amendment would make the pill and IUDs illegal because they keep a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. It would prohibit the "morning after" pill that a woman who has been raped can take if she fears she might have been impregnated by her attacker.

Schoettler goes on to mention the setbacks 48 would present to couples who pursue in vitro fertilization, because all those leftover, fertilized eggs would by law be regarded as human lives. And the setbacks 48 would present to stem cell research.

Then she asks an interesting question:

Then, what about property rights? Can some ambitious lawyer file lawsuits on behalf of a bundle of cells to get property, inherit money, win a judgment in an auto accident? Now here's a whole new field of legal opportunity.

In a nutshell? No on 48.