U.S. Senate Will Vote on Human Cloning Ban Monday

Washington, DC - On Monday afternoon, pro-life Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Trent Lott (R-MS) are expected to offer an amendment to another bill that would put in place a temporary six-month ban on all forms of human cloning.

"We've been after governments around the world for doing experiments on prisoners, we've been on them for harvesting body parts, and yet now we've let it happen in our own society," said Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), addressing reporters in Washington.

Although the amendment is unlikely to get the 60 Senate votes necessary, Lott said Thursday that anti-cloning legislators believe the Senate should go on record on both issues before Congress recesses in December. ``If we don't do it now, we won't be able to do anything until February or March,'' Lott added.

President Bush strongly supports a complete human cloning ban prohibiting human cloning for both reproduction and research.

Brownback said he will try to get Senate leaders to clear the way for an immediate vote on banning human cloning but would not rule out a filibuster to force the issue.

``Time out - let's hold up a little bit,'' Brownback said. ``We need to debate all of these issues.''

Earlier in the annual budgeting process, he had agreed to postpone the matter until March of 2002. But the announcement of a successful effort at human cloning made the matter urgent, Brownback told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference.

Under current law, federal tax dollars cannot be used for human cloning or stem cell research from newly created embryos.

Several states, including California, have gone further by banning human cloning, and Congress is considering such a ban. In late July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Weldon-Stupak bill (H.R. 2505), which would ban all cloning of human beings.

Advanced Cell Technology insists its intention is not to create cloned embryos to grow into adult human beings. However, its cloned embryos would be killed to obtain stem cells for research.

Nearly a dozen anti-cloning groups, including the United Methodist Church, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Right to Life Committee, convened on Capitol Hill Monday to call on the Senate to ban cloning. They were even joined by an environmental group, Friends of the Earth, that also opposes human cloning.

If lawmakers think the issue needs more debate before they are ready to permanently ban the practice, then pass a temporary ban and debate the merits in February or March, suggested Weekly Standard publisher and Bioethics Project chairman Bill Kristol.

"We protect habitat and the spawning grounds and the eggs of [endangered] species," said Brownback. "Should we at least treat [human embryos] as well as we do endangered species?"

The National Right to Life Committee warned of "human embryo farms."

"This corporation is creating human embryos for the sole purpose of killing them and harvesting their cells," warned Douglas Johnson, the legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee.

3. desember 2001