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[Page: H8552]  GPO's PDF
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   The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. PENCE) is recognized for 5 minutes.

   Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I come to the well of the House today to call my colleagues' attention to recent developments in biotechnology research.

   As I was preparing to return to Washington, D.C. on Sunday morning, I was shocked, along with the overwhelming majority of Members of this body, to learn that a company in Massachusetts was loudly touting its recent decision to clone a human being for medical research.

   Despite the overwhelming vote in this Chamber on the subject, this rogue company and perhaps others have rushed to get ahead of our deliberations, breaking a heretofore established barrier of scientific ethics. I fear, Mr. Speaker, that this action may be the beginning of the end for medical ethics in our country.

   No matter what one's position on the issue of human life or abortion or a woman's right to choose, 88 percent of the public today is opposed to the cloning of human beings. We should all be troubled by the fact that scientists are attempting to thwart the political will of the country and the consensus of the medical community in advancing this research ahead of legislation.

   When faced with a similar claim of the benefits of what was known as eugenics in his time, the great moralist G.K. Chesterton remarked, ``Eugenicists have discovered how to combine the hardening of the heart with the softening of the head.''

   There is no doubt that we have entered a new area of the debate over this issue, Mr. Speaker. Rather than speaking hypothetically about using some human beings to serve the needs of others, for-profit entities are actively defending this as science on the evening news.

   This Faustian bargain is the same sort of dilemma that has faced humanity, and particularly civilized societies, for some time. We in the western tradition have consistently embraced the principle, and no matter how attractive the benefits, it is impermissible to experiment on the helpless. We must guard this important principle.

   It is hard for us to grapple with the moral implications of a human life that is only seconds from conception. We cannot look at a cloned embryo in the face to confront this moral chasm. It takes a particularly keen sense of moral seriousness to grasp the implications of these recent developments.

   One person who does understand this is my good friend and colleague, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. WELDON), who authored the legislation, along with my friend and colleague, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. STUPAK), who I joined today at a press conference where we stepped in to say that the will of the people of the United States, informed by conscience, ought to lead American ethics in research, and not these amoral biotechnical firms.

   Tonight, Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor to urge immediate action to stop the slide towards reductionist thinking on medical technology and the research that makes it possible. Yes, we want to heal the sick and prevent crippling disease. Therapies to make life longer and better are affecting every family. Who would not want more time with their parents and fewer trips to the pediatrician?

   It is truly amazing what God has allowed our scientific community to reap in this area. However, it is clear from the debate that these events have triggered across the country that Americans understand the moral implications of the experimentation that I have described here this evening. Cloning human embryos is a step too far. I urge my colleagues to move quickly to place these practices where they belong: beyond the pale of the law.

   Ever since witnessing the disaster that was the eugenics movement, civilized societies have recognized that involuntary experimentation on human beings is utterly indefensible. Let us as elected leaders of the foremost civilized society in the world today reconfirm our commitment to this principle.

   Today, Mr. Speaker, the House Chaplain began our proceedings with a prayer in which he mentioned the fabled tower of Babel. This was a tower rising to the skies, the pride of its time, a testament to the human technology of the day, but it eventually destroyed its builders and their very civilization.

   I submit tonight that the creation of human life for research or for vanity is such a tower of Babel. It threatens to tear the fabric of our society, our law, and indeed, our very civilization, and it must be stopped.

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