Copyright 2002 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution  

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
February 24, 2002 Sunday, Home Edition
SECTION: News; Pg. 5A

LENGTH: 794 words

HEADLINE: Senate tackles cloning bans;
3 bills reflect opposing views, sharply debated guidelines

BYLINE: HERVEY COLETTE

SOURCE: Cox Washington Bureau

BODY:
Washington --- Human cloning, which comes under Senate scrutiny this week, is "morally repugnant" to some and a "bright hope" to others.

The sharply opposing views are reflected in three bills competing for passage.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) is seeking a complete ban on cloning "for any purpose."

"Does the human embryo have any moral significance? We're treating it today as if it were cattle or frogs," Brownback said in November after a Massachusetts firm, Advanced Cell Technology Inc., announced it had cloned human embryos for research on diseases.

Bills by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) would ban "reproductive cloning" that could lead to creation of a human baby from the cells of another person. But both bills allow "therapeutic cloning" to harvest stem cells.

Those cells form in the early stages of a human embryo's development. Their ability to develop into a wide variety of specialized cells has raised hopes for new disease treatments, such as growing insulin-producing pancreas cells for someone with diabetes or heart muscle cells for a heart attack victim.

"Cloning is one of those words that seems to inspire dread in people, visions of an apocalyptic world of zombies marching in lockstep," Feinstein said.

"However, as is the case with many medical technologies, it is not cloning techniques that are the problem, but some of their potential applications."
 
Senate hearing

A Senate hearing on the Harkin provision is scheduled Tuesday before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) has promised a floor vote on the issue this spring.

President Bush supports the Brownback legislation and has said he is opposed to all forms of cloning. Bush has commissioned a bioethics council of medical experts, lawyers and theologians to advise him and Congress on the cloning issue. The council hopes to issue a report by summer.

Brownback says he has enough votes to prevail in the Senate, despite its narrow Democratic majority.

"There are 21 co-sponsors to the legislation, and Sen. Brownback is very encouraged and looks forward to passing the same bill that passed in the House last year," spokesman Erik Hotmire said.

In 2001, the House approved a cloning ban identical to Brownback's by a vote of 265-162.
 
The debate

Either the Feinstein or the Harkin bill, if passed by the Senate, would have to go to a conference committee to work out differences with the House version.

The two bills are similar, although Feinstein's would require researchers to follow federal ethics guidelines for cloning research.

Feinstein said prospects for her bill, which has seven co-sponsors, look good. "Our bill is the only one that will pass muster," she said. "A careful place in the law will secure bright hopes for a myriad of people with various medical problems."

Catherine Verfaillie, director of the University of Minnesota's Stem Cell Institute, said she and most of her fellow researchers want to avoid any ban on cloning research.

"They may provide compatible cells to treat a number of diseases . . . and cloning of embryonic stem cell lines may be critical to the study of adult onset diseases," Verfaillie said.

A January report released by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine supports a ban on reproductive cloning, but said that therapeutic cloning could lead to research breakthroughs on major diseases.

Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a heart surgeon who unsuccessfully pushed for a cloning ban in 1998, said the report "ignores the fact that if cloning techniques are allowed for so-called therapeutic purposes, those techniques are virtually certain to lead to reproductive cloning."

Several interest groups are working to influence the Senate in the cloning debate.

"Reproductive cloning is untested, unsafe and morally repugnant," Carl Feldbaum said. Feldbaum is president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, which represents more than 1,000 biotech firms, universities and state biotechnology centers.

"BIO does, however, support therapeutic applications of cloning of cells and tissues . . . that would not result in cloned children, but could produce treatments and cures," he said.

The National Right to Life Committee has questioned the motives of research groups to defeat the Brownback bill.

"Unless more senators reject the pressure from the biotech industry and research advocacy groups, we may see human embryo farms open up for business in the near future," said Douglas Johnson, the group's legislative director. "The Harkin-Feinstein legislation would create a legal duty to kill a class of human individuals, all human embryos created by cloning."

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