 |
|
Sponsors of a bill in the US Congress to ban all forms of human cloning,
including the cloning of embryos to derive stem cells for research, say
recent claims of cloned babies make it more important than ever to
outlaw the practice.
"Whether it's a hoax or not, let's get this thing squared away once and
for all," said Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), of claims over the holidays by a
firm called Clonaid that it had successfully produced two cloned babies.
Stupak and Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL) Wednesday reintroduced a version of
the cloning ban bill that passed the House in 2001, but was never
considered by the Senate.
"In some sense, our friends in the Raelian movement have helped us...to
focus the attention of the American people on the perils that await us,"
said Mike Pence (R-IN). The Raelians, who believe all humans are
descendants of cloned space aliens, founded Clonaid.
Weldon said it is imperative for Congress to act early on a cloning ban,
because even though the Raelian claims are "questionable," there are
other, apparently more scientifically serious efforts underway to
produce a cloned human baby.
Weldon also brushed off complaints by the research community--complaints
that helped block the bill in the Senate last year--that banning cloning
of embryos for research as well as for reproduction would threaten their
ability to use stem cell research to manufacture cures for a wide
variety of chronic ailments. "I read the medical literature and there
does not exist even an animal model for therapeutic cloning," said
Weldon, who is a physician.
Even if research cloning to produce stem cells for cures was possible,
he said, allowing embryos to be made for research but not for
implantation into a woman would render the ban "unenforceable."
Weldon said he and Stupak did make one change to the new bill from the
one that passed the House in 2001 to answer some criticisms from the
Senate, including new Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN). While
the new version of the bill would continue to ban the importation of
cloned human embryos, it would no longer ban the importation of
treatments discovered outside the United States that use human cloning
techniques.
|
|
