Cloning Bill
In July 2001, the House of Representatives passed
H.R. 2505, the Weldon-Stupak Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001. It
passed with a vote of 265 - 162, with members of both parties and
differing views on reproductive rights voting for the bill.
The issue of cloning a human embryo, even for
research purposes, troubles me greatly. Creating the building block of
human life purely for research and dissection strikes me as abhorrent
and devalues human life.
Like the debate on human embryo research, we are in
the midst of a tremendous new debate; in the midst of a tremendous new
policy direction; in the midst of a tremendous new revolution. We
cannot afford to treat the issue of human embryo cloning lightly, nor
can we treat it without serious debate and deliberation.
The need for action is clear. A cult has publicly
announced its intention to begin human cloning for profit. Research
firms have announced their intentions to clone embryos for research
purposes and then discard what is unneeded. Whatever your belief is --
pro choice or pro life -- the fact is embryos are either building blocks
of human life or human life itself.
We must ask ourselves what will be our message?
What makes up human beings? What is the human spirit? What moves us?
What separates us from animals?
That is what was debated during the discussion on
H.R. 2505. What message will the United States Congress send? Will it
be a cynical signal that human embryo cloning and destruction is okay,
acceptable, even to be encouraged, all in the name of science? Or will
it be a message urging caution and care? If we allow this research to
go forward unchecked, what will be next? Allowing parents to choose
what color hair and eyes their baby will have? We need to consider
all aspects of cloning, and not just what researchers tell us is
good.
Opposition to the Weldon-Stupak bill has based its
objections on arguments that it will stifle research, discourage free
thinking, put science back in the dark ages. The Weldon-Stupak bill
does nothing of the sort. It allows animal cloning; it allows tissue
cloning; it allows current stem cell research being done on existing
embryos; it allows DNA cloning. How is this seen as stifling research?
And do you know why there is no research being done?
Because the scientists -- the same ones banging on our doors begging to be
allowed to experiment with human embryos -- don=t
know how. They=ve
experimented for years with cloned animal embryos with very limited
success.
These scientists who are pushing so hard to be
allowed a free pass for research on what constitutes the very essence of
what it is to be a human do not know what goes wrong with cloned animal
embryos. And the horror stories are too many to mention here of deformed
mice and deformed sheep developing from cloned embryos.
A prominent researcher working for the bioresearch
companies has admitted scientists do not know how or what happens in
cloned embryos allowing these deformities. In fact, he calls the
procedure when an egg reprograms DNA
Amagic.@
Magic? This is hardly a comforting, hard-hitting
scientific term, but it is accurate. It is magic.
Opponents of our bill have said embryonic research is
the Holy Grail of science, and holds the key to untold medical wonders. I
say to these opponents, show me your miracles. Show me the wondrous
advances done on animal embryonic cloning. But these opponents cannot
show me these advances because they do not exist.
Our ability to delve into the mysteries of life grows
exponentially. All fields of science fuse to enhance our ability to go
where we have never gone before.
The question is this: simply because we CAN do
something, does that mean we SHOULD? I, and the majority of the House of
Representatives, believe we should not.
What is the better path to take? One of haste and a
rush to benefits that are at best years in the future, entrusting cloned
human embryos to scientists who do not know what they are doing with
cloned animal embryos? Or one urging caution, urging a step back,
deliberation?
The human race is not open for experimentation at any
level, even the molecular level. Hasn=t
20th-century history shown us the folly of this?
Holy Grail? Magic? How about the human soul?
Scientists and medical researchers can=t
find it, can=t
medically explain it, but writers write about it; songwriters sing out it;
we believe in it. From the depths of my soul I know we should ban human
cloning.
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