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ASRM BULLETIN
Volume 4, Number 14
April 10,
2002
President Bush Announces Opposition To Use Of Cloning Technology For Any Purpose
This afternoon President Bush gathered 175 opponents to human cloning, members of Congress and religious leaders among them, to reiterate his opposition to the use of cloning technology for any purpose. Equating somatic cell nuclear transfer with "creating life in order to destroy it," the president urged the Senate to follow the lead of the House of Representatives, which last summer passed a total ban on cloning. The Senate is expected to debate and vote on the issue later this spring.
See www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25773-2002Apr10.html
ASRM issued today the following statement on the President's speech:
ASRM Statement on Bush Cloning Address
Statement
Attributable to William Keye, MD
President, American Society for
Reproductive Medicine
“ASRM is very disappointed in the President's continued opposition to research into a technology that could unlock cures for millions of Americans. Even the advice of the country's foremost scientists have not persuaded the President to consider the benefits that may result from the therapeutic use of cloning technology.
Out nation’s leading scientists have again and again spoken in favor of this research. The National Academy of Sciences and now 40 Nobel Laureates have realized its tremendous potential and have called on the federal government to oversee it, not prohibit it. While no reputable scientists support the reproductive cloning of human beings, the vast majority recognizes that therapeutic cloning has the potential to help those with chronic illnesses who need to replace diseased or damaged tissues.
Insisting on a ban of all cloning technology is effectively an “all-or-nothing” policy that will prevent Congress from accomplishing the important goal of banning reproductive cloning, unless it also bans the research and therapeutic applications of the technology. If all cloning technology is made illegal in the United States, other countries, some of which have already approved this technology, could benefit, attracting our leading biological scientists in a “brain drain.” As a result, America could relinquish its place as the leader in bio-medical research and Americans could lose access to cures developed for diseases."
Senate Is Divided On The Issue
The Senate appears to be close to evenly split on the issue, with about 20 Senators presently undecided according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Senator Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican and the only physician in the Senate, supports a total ban but has reservations about the importation provisions of a bill before the Senate that would make it a crime to import the products of human cloning- thereby making it illegal for a patient receiving cloning-derived treatment overseas to return to the US. In spite of his opinion that the therapeutic potential of cloning is being oversold, Senator Frist admitted to Reuters, "If there is a cure for a patient who has multiple schlerosis, and it's available to the world, as a physician my ethical obligation is to do what's best for that patient."
See www.reutershealth.com/archive/2002/04/09/eline/links/20020409elin035.html
Forty Nobel Laureates Send Letter To Congressmen In Support Of Research And Therapeutic Use Of Cloning
Forty Nobel Prize-winning scientists have signed on to a letter expressing support for use of the technology and asking the legislators not to "impede progress against some of the most debilitating diseases known to man," by passing an outright ban of human cloning. Signers include James Watson, one of the discoverers of the structure of DNA and Harold Varmus, former director of the NIH. See the website of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research for more information. www.stemcellfunding.org
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