House votes to ban cloning

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House votes to ban cloning
The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to ban all forms of human cloning on February 26, roundly defeating a rival bill that would allow the use of cloning technology for medical research.

The House passed a similar bill in 2001, but the Senate failed to pass any legislation on cloning. The issue once again lies in the Senate, where similar rival bills await passage.

The Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003, sponsored by Florida Republican Dave Weldon and Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak, passed by a vote of 241 to 155 after several hours of debate.

The bill proposes a comprehensive ban on all human cloning, including cloning to create a pregnancy or for medical research. It also would make it a crime to "receive or import a cloned human embryo or any product derived from a cloned human embryo," with fines of $1 million and 10 years in prison.

"This vote reflects America's rejection of the notion that human life is a commodity to be created for experimentation," said Cathy Cleaver, Director of Planning and Information for the Pro-Life Secretariat of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Cleaver noted that some representatives who opposed the bill claimed to be against human cloning but in favor of using "somatic cell nuclear transfer" or SCNT. This was deceptive, she said, because SCNT is simply the scientific name for the human cloning procedure. In fact, SCNT is the same procedure that Raelians claim to have used to create "Eve."

"The impact of cloning on women was also considered," the USCCB official continued. "Allowing human cloning for "therapeutic" or research purposes would require countless numbers of women to surrender their eggs by an extraction process that is both painful and dangerous. Making women into egg factories for this research is an utterly demeaning proposition."

"We now look to the Senate for quick passage of a ban on human cloning," she said.

Supporting the legislation, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Archbishop of Philadelphia and Chairman of the USCCB's Committee for Pro-Life Activities wrote: "While the practical case against all human cloning has become stronger, the basic moral issue has not changed. Cloning dehumanizes human procreation, treating new human life as a mere laboratory product made to specifications.

"Whether used to bring cloned human embryos to live birth (so-called 'reproductive' cloning), or to exploit them as sources of 'spare parts' for other humans (so-called 'therapeutic' cloning), human cloning diminishes us all. The allegedly lofty goals proposed for cloning cannot outweigh the grim reality of the activity itself."

This last provision troubled opponents, who feared it could turn into criminals patients seeking treatments abroad that might result from embryonic stem cell research.

President Bush, a supporter of the cloning ban, urged the Senate to quickly approve its corresponding legislation, S. 245, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003.

For more information:
Americans to Ban Cloning
USCCB Pro-Life Office on Cloning

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