Friday, August 05, 2005

The Human Cloning Ban that Wasn't a Human Cloning Ban

A new "ban" on human cloning has been introduced in the United States Senate. From what I've seen it hasn't gotten much press but maybe it will in the future. It's co-sponsored by Dianne Feinstein and Orrin Hatch.

S. 1520, whose text is here, is entitled The Human Cloning Ban Act of 2005. Sounds good, huh? It's not.

By reading the language of the "cloning ban" you can easily see that it doesn't ban human cloning at all. It merely bans and provides penalties for the implantation of a human clone in a uterus or a uterus like device.

How do they get around calling a piece of legislation a "human cloning ban" when it doesn't ban human cloning? That's easy. Just create a new and completely inaccurate definition for the term "human cloning."

The term `human cloning' means implanting or attempting to implant the product of nuclear transplantation into a uterus or the functional equivalent of a uterus.


Isn't it interesting how that language is eerily familiar to the language that Illinois governor Rod Blagoveich used in his executive order to allow tax dollars to pay for human cloning research. More on that here.

As used in this Executive Order, "cloning of a human being" means asexual human reproduction by implanting or attempting to implant the product of nuclear transplantation into a woman's uterus to initiate a human pregnancy.


What's next? Why not define "human cloning" as the "human gestation of a product of nuclear transplantation past 6 months" or the "live birth of an unfertilized fetus via a human uterus."

S. 1520 bill is also nearly identical to another bill, S. 876, that is also co-sponsored by Feinstein and Hatch and was introduced in April. The old bill S. 876 contained "ethical requirements" for "nuclear transplantation" (human cloning) research including rules against maintaining embryos more than 14 days after their first cell division. This new bill does not. This bill would claim to ban human cloning while allowing human cloning to take place without any kind of guidelines except that a human clone can't be implanted.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous4:26 PM

    There are two Cloning Bills opposing each other, and will be hitting the Senate Floor around the same time (I think in Sept.)

    I have met and spoke personally with Senator Brownback (Rep. Kansas) just last week about his Cloning Bill, S. 658. (To read a news article about it go to-- http://www.thefactis.org/default.
    aspx?control=ArticleMaster&aid=177
    &authid=12
    To read the Bill itself go to:
    http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/
    bdquery/z?d109:s.00658:

    Senator Borwnback made it quite clear that the Feinstein-Hatch Bill is simply a "Clone & Kill" bill. (Allowing for the cloning of a human for 'therapeutic' reasons, but "killing" the viable zygoat (embryo) at it's earlist stages of development, not allowing it to grow to term, but using that clone in it's few days (or week or two) of life for harvesting stem cells from it.

    It's astonishing to see the loads of mis-information that is being circulated out there on the Finstein-Hatch Bill, and how the media is pumping it up to be so "wonderful" and then absolutely no media coverage is being donated to the oppsoning Bill of Sen. Brownback's. So typical though of the left-wing media.

    Sen. Brownback is in need of much support for his Bill which bans ALL human cloning PERIOD. Not even for stem cells research.

    I highly recommend all those who are pro-life to call and e-mail their Senators before September not to support the Finstein- Hatch Bill but to throw all support behind Brownback's Bill (S.658) and to spread the word; Sam can sure use the help and grassroots spreading of this word on this Bill!

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