The Associated Press missed out on the latest pro-cloning talking points: trick folks into thinking embryos aren’t actually embryos.

In their story on the Massachusetts bill passing the House, the AP reports: “The measure would allow scientists to create cloned embryos and extract their stem cells for research into the treatment and cure of diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries and other conditions.”

But this is how one pro-cloning legislator put it to the Boston Globe earlier in the week:

”I can’t quite figure out where the governor’s objections are coming from,” said Representative Daniel E. Bosley, the North Adams Democrat who is shepherding the bill in the House. ”Somatic cell nuclear transfer involves transferring a nucleus into an egg, not an embryo. It is then tricked into thinking it is fertilized. It is not a fertilized embryo. Many scientists feel that it cannot be implanted, and, if it is implanted, that it will not grow.”

(Globe columnist Joan Vennochi has something similar yesterday.