WASHINGTON — The sponsors of U.S. House-approved legislation that would ban the cloning of human embryos said today the Senate needs to act immediately, if opponents of cloning “are going to keep this genie from getting completely out of the bottle.”

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., held a press conference today outside the U.S. Capitol to urge their Senate colleagues to take up H.R. 2505, The Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001, which was approved in the House in July by a vote of 265-162. 

The Senate is tentatively scheduled to take up the bill in the spring of 2002, but in the wake of the weekend announcement that Advanced Cell Technology, a Boston company, has created human embryos for research purposes, Stupak and Weldon argued today that the Senate needs to take up their bill now.

“I predicted during our hearings earlier this year that some lab would clone a human embryo by fall, and Advanced Cell Technology has fulfilled that prophecy,” Stupak said. “Not only have they taken this step, but they have published, for general consumption, the blueprint on how other laboratories can create cloned human embryos for research and reproductive purposes.

“The debate over the scientific, legal and moral aspects of this procedure should engage all Americans before it is permitted to go forward,” Stupak said. “Unfortunately, in the absence of a ban the Senate could help provide, we are allowing science to dictate national policy.” 

Stupak has spoken out strongly against the cloning of human embryos in Commerce Committee hearings and on the House floor, and he has opposed the idea that science should be allowed to go ahead with human cloning simply because it is capable of doing so.

“What message will the United States Senate send?” Stupak asked. “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?  

“The human race is not open for experimentation at any level,” Stupak said.