For Immediate Release
December 21, 2001

HHS to investigate ACT grants

Federal money should not support human cloning efforts, say Pitts and Thompson

Washington—Congressman Joe Pitts (R, PA-16) said today that he has been told by the Secretary of Health and Human Services that the department is launching an investigation into Advanced Cell Technology’s receipt of federal grants.  ACT Technologies announced Thanksgiving weekend that it had cloned a human being.  A month prior to that announcement, it received grants from the National Institutes of Health.

“There is an overwhelming consensus in this country that cloning human beings is wrong,” said Congressman Pitts.  “Federal money should not be supporting unethical science, directly or indirectly.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson wrote to Congressman Pitts in a letter dated December 20, 2001:

“As you know, the Bush Administration is opposed to any activities intended to clone a human being.  The Department of Health and Human Services supports the proposed Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001, H.R. 2505, which would make it unlawful for any person knowingly to clone or attempt to clone a human being.”

Secretary Thompson continued, “Immediately after this news came to my attention, I asked the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to inform me whether ACT had received any federal grants which might have been involved in this human cloning research. …I have asked the Inspector General at HHS, Janet Rehnquist, to investigate this matter further and report back to me.”

Congressman Pitts said he has also received word that the Department of Commerce will be investigating ACT’s uses of federal money as well.  A postscript document file of Secretary Thompson’s letter is posted on Congressman Pitts’ Web site here.

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