WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) said the bill introduced today by supporters of human cloning research permits human cloning.

“The latest bill offered by those in the Senate who support human cloning would ratify and endorse the mass production of human embryos as research material,” Brownback said. “This will inevitably lead to the creation of human embryo farms where embryos will be grown to specification and then harvested for body parts.

“The facts are clear: the result of nuclear transplantation is a cloned human embryo. This bill does not ban the process of human cloning, it simply claims to try and stop the live birth of a cloned human baby.

“What are future generations going to remember about this debate? What will our legacy be? Are we going to help usher in a ‘brave new world’ by passing a bill that calls for the creation and destruction of human beings through the process of cloning?” Brownback said.

“The cloning of human beings marks a new and decisive step toward turning human reproduction into a manufacturing process in which children are made in laboratories according to preordained specifications,” Landrieu said. “The Brownback-Landrieu bill permanently bans the creation of cloned human embryos for any purpose...and that is all it does. It does not ban any form of stem cell research, which holds great promise for curing a number of debilitating illnesses and injuries. In fact, embryonic stem cell research on existing embryos would still be allowed, as would adult stem cell research, cloning of DNA, tissues, muscles and organ cells. In all there are at least 18 major medical advancements that would still be allowed.

“Therefore, to suggest that the Brownback-Landrieu bill is anti-research, is false. We simply recognize that the creation of cloned human embryos is not a necessary part of the equation. It’s unnecessary and it’s unacceptable,” Landrieu said.

The bipartisan Brownback-Landrieu Human Cloning Prohibition Act (S. 1899), which would ban all human cloning, has 31 cosponsors. A broad left-middle-right coalition supports a ban on all human cloning. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a total and comprehensive ban on all human cloning by over 100 votes last year. President Bush has said he would sign S. 1899 into law.