Colorado Petition Seeks to Define Embryos as 'Persons'
A pro-life group, led by a 20-year-old, is collecting thousands of signatures in hopes of having the state Constitution define fertilized eggs as people.
Kristi Burton, who founded Colorado for Equal Rights, spearheaded a measure that would give fertilized eggs state protections of inalienable rights, justice and due process. The Colorado Supreme Court approved the language last month.
Burton has about five months left to collect the 76,000 signatures required to put the initiative on the November 2008 ballot.
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Opponents of the statute had attempted to stop the ballot measure from moving forward. They claimed the amendment dealt with more than one issue and was directed toward outlawing abortion.
Burton, however, insisted that her only aim is to define when human life begins and said that she would leave the issue of abortion up to lawmakers.
"It's a concrete point in time that we can point to. It's at the moment of conception, life begins and at that moment we need to protect it. If we don't do that, then anyone can take away people's lives at other stages," she said, according to The Associated Press.
The home-schooled activist has also described her human life amendment as a matter of "constitutional principle" and said it doesn't outlaw abortion or regulate birth control.
Similar efforts toward human life amendments are also under way in Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi and Oregon.
