July 22, 2002

President's bioethics panel asks for moratorium on human cloning
___By Robert Marus
___ABP Washington Bureau
___WASHINGTON (ABP)--A presidential panel on bioethics has called for a four-year moratorium on human cloning, including for medical research.
___A divided President's Council on Bioethics, however, declined to call for an outright ban on cloning, saying instead that "prudent and sensible" regulation is the best way to advance research while guarding against abuse.
___Ten of 18 council members supported the moratorium. One member abstained from voting. The long-awaited report is unlikely to affect a Senate stalemate over the issue, however.
___The House of Representatives has passed a bill banning cloning of human embryos for any purpose, but two competing bills have been mired in the Senate for months.
___One bill, sponsored by Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Mary Landrieu, D-La., would ban cloning outright. Another, sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would ban cloning for reproductive purposes but not for research.
___Each version has the backing of about 40 senators. Anti-abortion groups prefer the Brownback-Landrieu measure. They contend that life begins at conception. Since research requires that embryos be destroyed, they oppose all research involving fertilized human eggs.
___Adding to the conflict is the unlikely co-sponsorship of the other bill by Feinstein, a pro-abortion Democrat, and Hatch, who is anti-abortion. Hatch has said he believes, too, that life starts at conception but that cloned embryos aren't technically "conceived" through the uniting of an egg and sperm.
___Embryos are valued in research for their ability to produce stem cells, which can be harvested to grow a variety of tissues for use in transplantation to treat serious illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
___Other research, however, points to similar promise using stem cells harvested from adults, meaning no embryos are destroyed. That led abortion opponents to hope the president's council might call for an outright ban on cloning.
___"The report is not what those of us who want a total ban on cloning would have hoped for, but it's the best we could expect given the composition of the council," said Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
___Aside from the anti-abortion lobby, some ethicists fear loopholes in the Feinstein bill could ultimately lead to the use of human embryos for reproduction. All voting council members said they opposed cloning for reproductive purposes.

Get printer-friendly version of this story


Send this story to a friend



News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook