Senator Arlen Specter - Pennsylvania

Arlen Specter - U.S. Senator - Pennsylvania

November 27th, 2001

Contact: William Reynolds, 202-224-9020

SENATOR SPECTER COMMENTS ON LATEST DEVELOPMENTS ON HUMAN CLONING

- Washington, DC- Today U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Labor, Health, Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee made the following statement regrading the issue of cloning:

I think this is a distinction which needs to be made. What is involved is a technique which involves taking the genetic material out of an unfertilized egg and inserting in its place the D.N.A. of an adult cell to direct its development, turning into an embryo that is an exact genetic copy of the donor of the adult cell. Now this is done for the purpose of therapy. If someone has Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s or who needs a stem cell replacement related to cancer or to heart disease, this procedure then enables that individual to get a stem cell which is consistent with the body and which will not have an adverse impact on the person who is being treated. Where you talk about the issue of embryos which could produce life, I would never support any approach which took an embryo which was capable of producing life or destined to produce life.

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