THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you all so very much for coming to the
White House. It's my honor to welcome you to the people's house.
I particularly want to honor three folks who I had the honor of
meeting earlier: Joni Tada, Jim Kelly and Steve McDonald. I want to
thank you for your courage, I want to thank you for your wisdom, I
want to thank you for your extraordinary perseverence and faith. They
have triumphed in the face of physical disability and share a deep
commitment to medicine that is practiced ethically and humanely.
All of us here today believe in the promise of modern medicine.
We're hopeful about where science may take us. And we're also here
because we believe in the principles of ethical medicine.
As we seek to improve human life, we must always preserve human
dignity. (Applause.) And therefore, we must prevent human cloning by
stopping it before it starts. (Applause.)
I want to welcome Tommy Thompson, who is the Secretary of Health
and Human Services, a man who is doing a fine job for America.
(Applause.) I want to thank members from the United States Congress,
members from both political parties who are here. I particularly want
to thank Senator Brownback and Senator Landrieu for sponsoring a bill
about which I'm going to speak. (Applause.)
As well, we've got Senator Frist and Senator Bond and Senator
Hutchinson and Senator Santorum and Congressman Weldon, Stupak, and
eventually Smith and Kerns. They just don't realize -- (applause)
-- thank you all for coming -- they seem to have forgotten we start
things on time here in the White House. (Laughter.)
We live in a time of tremendous medical progress. A little more
than a year ago, scientists first cracked the human genetic code --
one of the most important advances in scientific history. Already,
scientists are developing new diagnostic tools so that each of us can
know our risk of disease and act to prevent them.
One day soon, precise therapies will be custom made for our own
genetic makeup. We're on the threshold of historic breakthroughs
against AIDS and Alzheimer's Disease and cancer and diabetes and heart
disease and Parkinson's Disease. And that's incredibly positive.
Our age may be known to history as the age of genetic medicine, a
time when many of the most feared illnesses were overcome.
Our age must also be defined by the care and restraint and
responsibility with which we take up these new scientific powers.
Advances in biomedical technology must never come at the expense of
human conscience. (Applause.) As we seek what is possible, we must
always ask what is right, and we must not forget that even the most
noble ends do not justify any means. (Applause.)
Science has set before us decisions of immense consequence. We can
pursue medical research with a clear sense of moral purpose or we can
travel without an ethical compass into a world we could live to
regret. Science now presses forward the issue of human cloning. How
we answer the question of human cloning will place us on one path or
the other.
Human cloning is the laboratory production of individuals who are
genetically identical to another human being. Cloning is achieved by
putting the genetic material from a donor into a woman's egg, which has
had its nucleus removed. As a result, the new or cloned embryo is an
identical copy of only the donor. Human cloning has moved from science
fiction into science.
One biotech company has already began producing embryonic human
clones for research purposes. Chinese scientists have derived stem
cells from cloned embryos created by combining human DNA and rabbit
eggs. Others have announced plans to produce cloned children, despite
the fact that laboratory cloning of animals has lead to spontaneous
abortions and terrible, terrible abnormalities.
Human cloning is deeply troubling to me, and to most Americans.
Life is a creation, not a commodity. (Applause.) Our children are
gifts to be loved and protected, not products to be designed and
manufactured. Allowing cloning would be taking a significant step
toward a society in which human beings are grown for spare body parts,
and children are engineered to custom specifications; and that's not
acceptable.
In the current debate over human cloning, two terms are being
used: reproductive cloning and research cloning. Reproductive cloning
involves creating a cloned embryo and implanting it into a woman with
the goal of creating a child. Fortunately, nearly every American
agrees that this practice should be banned. Research cloning, on the
other hand, involves the creation of cloned human embryos which are
then destroyed to derive stem cells.
I believe all human cloning is wrong, and both forms of cloning
ought to be banned, for the following reasons. First, anything other
than a total ban on human cloning would be unethical. Research cloning
would contradict the most fundamental principle of medical ethics, that
no human life should be exploited or extinguished for the benefit of
another. (Applause.)
Yet a law permitting research cloning, while forbidding the birth
of a cloned child, would require the destruction of nascent human
life. Secondly, anything other than a total ban on human cloning would
be virtually impossible to enforce. Cloned human embryos created for
research would be widely available in laboratories and embryo farms.
Once cloned embryos were available, implantation would take place.
Even the tightest regulations and strict policing would not prevent or
detect the birth of cloned babies.
Third, the benefits of research cloning are highly speculative.
Advocates of research cloning argue that stem cells obtained from
cloned embryos would be injected into a genetically identical
individual without risk of tissue rejection. But there is evidence,
based on animal studies, that cells derived from cloned embryos may
indeed be rejected.
Yet even if research cloning were medically effective, every person
who wanted to benefit would need an embryonic clone of his or her own,
to provide the designer tissues. This would create a massive national
market for eggs and egg donors, and exploitation of women's bodies that
we cannot and must not allow. (Applause.)
I stand firm in my opposition to human cloning. And at the same
time, we will pursue other promising and ethical ways to relieve
suffering through biotechnology. This year for the first time, federal
dollars will go towards supporting human embryonic stem cell research
consistent with the ethical guidelines I announced last August.
The National Institutes of Health is also funding a broad range of
animal and human adult stem cell research. Adult stem cells which do
not require the destruction of human embryos and which yield tissues
which can be transplanted without rejection are more versatile that
originally thought.
We're making progress. We're learning more about them. And
therapies developed from adult stem cells are already helping suffering
people.
I support increasing the research budget of the NIH, and I ask
Congress to join me in that support. And at the same time, I strongly
support a comprehensive law against all human cloning. And I endorse
the bill -- wholeheartedly endorse the bill -- sponsored by Senator
Brownback and Senator Mary Landrieu. (Applause.)
This carefully drafted bill would ban all human cloning in the
United States, including the cloning of embryos for research. It is
nearly identical to the bipartisan legislation that last year passed
the House of Representatives by more than a 100-vote margin. It has
wide support across the political spectrum, liberals and conservatives
support it, religious people and nonreligious people support it. Those
who are pro-choice and those who are pro-life support the bill.
This is a diverse coalition, united by a commitment to prevent the
cloning and exploitation of human beings. (Applause.) It would be a
mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind of human cloning
to come out of that chamber. (Applause.)
I'm an incurable optimist about the future of our country. I know
we can achieve great things. We can make the world more peaceful, we
can become a more compassionate nation. We can push the limits of
medical science. I truly believe that we're going to bring hope and
healing to countless lives across the country. And as we do, I will
insist that we always maintain the highest of ethical standards.