Statement On Human Cloning

June 2001

The U.S. Congress is about to consider legislation on human cloning. The undersigned call on Congress to pass a strong, effective ban on using human cloning to create a human being. To allow the creation of human clones would open the door to treating humans like interchangeable manufactured objects and commodities. It would violate deeply and widely held values concerning human individuality and dignity. It would pave the way for unprecedented new forms of eugenics. And it serves no justifiable purpose.

Supporters of women's health and reproductive rights have particular reasons to oppose human cloning. There is no way that human cloning could be developed without unethical mass experimentation on women and children. Further, cloning advocates are seeking to appropriate the language of reproductive rights and freedom of choice to support their case. This is a travesty, and needs to be challenged. There is an immense difference between ending an unwanted pregnancy and creating a duplicate human. Most people readily understand this, and can support abortion rights while opposing human cloning.

We also call for a moratorium of five years on the use of cloning to create human embryos for research purposes. At the same time we support research that would help to determine whether stem cells have therapeutic effects. Adult stem cells, umbilical cord stem cells, and embryonic stem cells that have not been derived from embryos created for research can be used for these purposes. The creation of clonal human embryos, which would increase the difficulty of enforcing a ban on the production of genetic duplicate humans, is unnecessary for these investigations. This moratorium is prudent and reasonable policy when faced with a technology of such profound consequence.

More than thirty countries worldwide have already banned the creation of human clones and/or imposed constraints on the creation of clonal human embryos. Women's health and reproductive rights advocates call on the United States to do likewise. The future of our common humanity is at stake.

Judy Norsigian, Executive Director, and Sally Whelan, Program Manager, Our Bodies Ourselves 

Amy Agigian, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Suffolk University (for identification purposes only)

Alison Amoroso, Executive Director, and Tori Costa, Publishing Associate, Teen Voices Magazine

Deborah Anderson, Director of the Fearing Laboratory, Harvard Medical School (for identification purposes only)

Lori Andrews, Professor, Chicago-Kent School of Law (for identification purposes only)

George Annas, Edward R. Utley Professor and Chair, Health Law Department, Boston University School of Public Health, and Professor, Boston University School of Medicine and Boston University School of Law (for identification purposes only)

Adrienne Asch, PhD, Henry R. Luce Professor in Biology, Ethics, and the Politics of Human Reproduction, Wellesley College (for identification purposes only)

Byllye Avery, Founder, National Black Women's Health Project (for identification purposes only)

Rosalyn Baxandall, Chair of American Studies, State University of New York at Old Westbury (for identification purposes only)

Susan E. Bell, PhD, A. Myrick Freeman Professor in Social Sciences, Bowdoin College (for identification purposes only)

Philip L. Bereano, Professor of Technology and Public Policy, University of Washington (for identification purposes only)

Rhajani Bhatia, Coordinator, Committee on Women, Population and the Environment

Barbara A. Brenner, Executive Director, Breast Cancer Action

Pamela D. Bridgewater, Associate Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law (for identification purposes only)

Charlotte Bunch, Executive Director, Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University (for identification purposes only)

Alexander M. Capron, University Professor of Law and Medicine, and Co-Director, Pacific

Center for Health Policy and Ethics, University of Southern California (for identification purposes only)

Lincoln Chen, Executive Vice-President for Strategy, Rockefeller Foundation (for identification purposes only)

Sanford Chodosh, MD, Boston University School of Medicine (for identification purposes only)

Nora Cody, Executive Director, DES Action USA

Peter Conrad, PhD., Harry Coplan Professor of Social Sciences, Brandeis University (for identification purposes only)

Irene W. Crowe, PhD. Pettus Crowe Foundation (for identification purposes only)

Ronnie Cummins, National Director, Organic Consumers Association

Alice J. Dan, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Center for Research on Women and Gender, University of Illinois at Chicago (for identification purposes only)

Marcy Darnovsky, PhD, Program Director, Exploratory Initiative on the New Human Genetic Technologies

Kristin Dawkins, Vice President for International Programs, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Jo Ann Dawson, MD, Primary Care, University of California Los Angeles (for identification purposes only)

Giovanna Di Chiro, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Environmental Science, Allegheny College, PA (for identification purposes only)

Leilani Doty, PhD., University of Florida Memory Disorders Clinic (for identification purposes only)

Gunnar Dybwad, Professor Emeritus, Brandeis University

Michael F. Epstein, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, and President, MedEView, Inc. (both for identification purposes only)

Roslyn Feldberg, Massachusetts Nurses Association (for identification only)

Francis Fukuyama, Bernard Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University (for identification purposes only)

Adrienne Germain, President, International Women's Health Coalition

Leonard Glantz, Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Boston University School of Public Health (for identification purposes only)

Stephanie Golden, independent scholar and author

Nirvana Gonzalez, for Taller Salud, Puerto Rico

Lynn Gordon, Founding Director, GirlSource

Abigail Halperin MD, MPH, University of Washington Center for Health Education and Research (for identification purposes only)

Lisa Handwerker, PhD., MPH, Medical Anthropologist and Women's Health Advocate

Donna Haraway, Professor, History of Consciousness Department, University of California at Santa Cruz (for identification purposes only)

Debra Harry, MS, Executive Director, Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism (for identification purposes only)

Betsy Hartmann, Director, Population and Development Program, Hampshire College

Martha R. Herbert, MD, PhD, Pediatric Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital (for identification purposes only)

Maureen Horowitz, Wichita Action Alert (for identification purposes only)

Ruth Hubbard, Professor Emerita Biology, Harvard University, and founding director, Council for Responsible Genetics

Mariannette Jaimes-Guerrero, Native American scholar, Associate Professor of Women's Studies, San Francisco State University (for identification purposes only)

Timothy R B Johnson MD, Bates Professor of the Diseases of Women and Children and

Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Professor of Women's Studies, Research Scientist, Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan (for identification purposes only)

Anne S. Kasper, PhD., First Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Women's Health Network

Jean Kilbourne, creator of "Killing Us Softly," author of Can't Buy My Love

Naomi Klein, journalist, author of "No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies"

Sarah Kovner, New York

Judith Levine, journalist and author, Vermont

Abby Lippman, Ph.D, Professor, McGill University, Montreal, Canada (for identification purposes only), Co-Chair, Board of Directors, Canadian Women's Health Network

Yeou-Cheng Ma, MD, Musician and Developmental Pediatrician, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, (for identification purposes only)

Luz Alvarez Martinez, National Latina Health Organization

Stuart Newman, PhD, Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy, New York Medical College (for identification purposes only)

Maureen Paul, MD, MPH, Planned Parenthood League of MA, Associate Professor, Dept. of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Massachusetts Medical School (for identification purposes only)

Cynthia Pearson, Executive Director, National Women's Health Network

Rosalind Petchesky, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York; Chair, Board of Trustees, Reproductive Health Matters (for identification purposes only)

Cheri Pies, Associate Dean for Student Affairs, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley (for identification purposes only)

Barbara Pillsbury, PhD., International Health & Development Associates

Joan Rachlin, JD, MPH, Executive Director, Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (for identification purposes only)

Kathryn Strother Ratcliff, Sociology Professor, University of Connecticut (for identification purposes only)

Nancy Reame, MSN, PhD, FAAN, The Rhetaugh Graves Dumas Professor of Nursing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (for identification purposes only)

Susan M. Reverby, Professor of Women's Studies, Wellesley College (for identification purposes only)

Caryl Rivers, Professor of Journalism, Boston University (for identification purposes only)

Alejandra Rotania, SER MULHER, Centro de Estudos e Ação da Mulher

Alice Rothchild, MD, FACOG, Harvard Vanguard Medical Assoc., Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (for identification purposes only)

Sheryl Burt Ruzek, PhD., MPH, Director, Center for Public Health, Acting Dean of the Graduate School, Temple University (for identification purposes only)

Marsha Saxton, World Institute on Disability, Oakland, California and University of California, Berkeley (for identification purposes only)

Margie Schaps, Chair, Illinois Women's Health Coalition

Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology, Boston College (for identification purposes only)

Barbara Seaman, Co-founder, National Women's Health Network

Ellen R. Shaffer, PhD, MPH

Lillian Shirley, RN, MPH, MPA Director, Multnomah County Health Department, Portland, Oregon

Evelyne Shuster, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor of Philosophy, Department of Psychiatry,

University of Pennsylvania, and Human Rights and Medical Ethics Program, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Philadelphia (for identification purposes only)

Dan Simon, Publisher, Seven Stories Press

Gloria Sly, Interim Director, Cultural Resource Center, Cherokee Nation (for identification purposes only)

Nancy E. Stoller, PhD., Professor of Community Studies and Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz (for identification purposes only)

Maureen Sullivan, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Northern Illinois University (for identification purposes only)

April J. Taylor, MPH, Program Manager, Community Benefits, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (for identification purposes only)

Martin Teitel, PhD, President, Council for Responsible Genetics

Nancy M. Theriot, Professor and Chair, Women's Studies, University of Louisville (for identification purposes only)

Leonore Tiefer, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine (for identification purposes only)

Brian Tokar, Institute for Social Ecology, VT

Leslie R. Wolfe, President, Center for Women Policy Studies

Susan Yanow, Director, for the Abortion Access Project

Quentin D. Young, MD, Clinical Professor of Preventive Medicine, University of Illinois Medical School, Chicago (for identification purposes only)

Barbara Anello, Disabled Women's Network (DAWN), Ontario, Canada

Codou Bop, Reproductive Health Consultant, Senegal

Madeline Boscoe, advocacy coordinator, Women's Health Clinic, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Vivian Brache and Dr. Francisco Alvarez, Profamilia, Dominican Republic (for identification purposes only)

Dr. Svetlana Broz, cardiologist, Author of Good People in an Evil Time, President of the Board of the First Children's Embassy in the World, Medjasi, Director of Garden of the Righteous Worldwide, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mirta Rodríguez Calderón, Cuban journalist currently working in the Dominican Republic in cooperation with Mujer y Salud

Fernanda Carneiro, Member of Consultant in Research Ethics for Oswaldo Cruz Fundation (FIOCRUZ), Brazil

Chantal Cholette, La coopérative Convergence, Ottawa, Canada

Amparo Claro, General Coordinator, Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network, Chile

Phyllis Creighton, research associate, Faculty of Divinity, Trinity College, Toronto (for identification purposes only)

Margrit Eichler, PhD, FRSC, Director, Institute for Women's Studies and Gender Studies, University of Toronto and Professor, Sociology and Equity Studies in Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto (for identification purposes only)

Donna Gardiner, Nga Wahine Tiaki o Te Ao and Nga Manu Nganahu, Aoteoroa (New Zealand)

Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg, PhD, MES, Women's Health and the Environment Network (WHEN) Education Coordinator, Toronto, Canada (for identification purposes only)

Carmen Julia Gómez, Dominican Republic

Karen R. Grant, PhD, Department of Sociology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada (for identification purposes only)

Uwe Kitzinger, CBE, Visiting Scholar, Harvard University (for identification purposes only)

Fiona Miller, Assistant Professor, Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University (for identification purposes only)

Shree Mulay, Professor, Department of Medicin e, McGill University, Montreal, Canada (for identification purposes only)

Rina Nissim, Espace Femmes International, Switzerland

Denise Paiewonsky, Director, Center for Gender Studies, Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Sundari Ravindran, “SRUTI”, Ananta Co-op Housing Society, Kerala, India

Dr. Constanza I. Sánchez C, Dr. Prudencia Cerón Mireles, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, México (for identification purposes only)

Gita Sen, Sir Ratan Tata Chair Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India

Karen Seabrooke, Inter Pares, Ottawa, Canada

Claire Slatter, General Coordinator, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), secretariat now located in Fiji

Maria Isabel Ibarrola Uriarte, Coordinadora General, CIDHAL, Cuernavaca, Mexico

Hine Waitere-Ang, Lecturer, Massey University, College of Education: Te Kupenga o Te Matauranga Maori and Multicultural Education, New Zealand (for identification purposes only)

Women's Health Interaction, Ottawa, Canada

Click here for more information on cloning as a women's issue.

MANIFESTO CONTRA A CLONAGEM HUMANA

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