Should Congress Pass the Bill that Would Ban Human Cloning for Reproductive and Research Purposes?      

June 12, 2002

Yes, Congress should pass the bill, the Brownback-Landrieu bill (S.1899), which would ban human cloning for reproductive and research purposes. I agree with a host of individuals and organizations that are encouraging senators to invoke cloture on S.1899 and to pass it.

The public supports by large margins a ban on human cloning. A Gallup survey in May took a national poll and questioned citizens if they supported “cloning of human embryos for use in medical research” and 61% opposed.

We are told by cloning supporters that cloning (somatic cell nuclear transfer), using a human nucleus, is not really cloning. However, scientific authorities, President Clinton’s bio-ethics panel, and cloning researchers have agreed and have made clear that somatic cell nuclear transfer is “cloning” and a “human embryo” will be the end result.

Should the Brownback-Landrieu bill (S.1899) fail to be passed in Congress, human “embryo farms” will spring up where cloned human embryos will be created to be killed for their stem cells or to be used for medical lab models.

Clone-and-kill bills such as S.2439 proposed by Senator Arlen Specter would provide for the establishment of an incubator industry for mass cloned human embryos to be killed for research and sold for great profit to commercial institutions. According to Douglas Johnson, Legislative Director for the National Right to Life Committee, Inc., S.2439 and other clone-and-kill bills would amend Title 18 (the federal criminal code) to foster human embryo cloning and “place the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies in charge of keeping track of countless cloned human embryos and ensuring that none of them survive”.

S.2076, introduced by Senator Dorgan would allow human embryo farms, but would also allow a cloned human embryo to be implanted in a “mammalian uterus” and grown to a more mature stage before being harvested, provided the implantation is not done “for the purpose of creating a cloned human being”. But where would this lead?

From the moment the egg and sperm unite, their union is a human life created by God. It doesn’t matter if this human life is harvested on a “farm”, created by a man and a woman, or grown in a petrie dish by a scientist, it is still a human life created by God and that life has a soul.
Rest-assured, there are several alternative sources to acquire stem cells without taking a life.

I agree with President George W. Bush who spoke by video recently to the Southern Baptist Convention. He said: “We believe that a life is a creation, not a commodity, and that our children are gifts to be loved and protected, not products to be designed and manufactured by human cloning”.

This is a crisis decision for Congress that will greatly influence the future of America.