Press Release
Tuesday, July 24, 2001

U.S. House Judiciary Committee approves Weldon-Stupak bill to ban cloning of human embryos; the House may choose next week between banning human cloning or allowing human embryo farms

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House Judiciary Committee today approved, on a party-line 18-11 vote, a bill to prohibit the creation of human embryos by cloning. The bill is H.R. 2505, sponsored by Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fl.) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mi.).

Also on a party-line vote, the panel rejected a radically different alternative offered by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Ca.) to allow the mass production of cloned human embryos, while prohibiting (for five years) the implantation of any such embryo in a woman's womb (thus, requiring each embryo's death). This approach -- also identified with Rep. Jim Greenwood (R-Pa.) -- is referred to by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) and other pro-life groups as the "human embryo farm bill" and the "clone and kill bill."

As early as next week, the full House of Representatives may take up the human cloning issue, and will choose between the true ban on human cloning (Weldon-Stupak) and the Greenwood-Schiff alternative. "The Democrats on the Judiciary Committee voted to allow human embryo farms in the United States, but many of their Democratic colleagues will not follow them over that cliff," commented NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. Johnson pointed to a June 2001 International Communications Research poll in which 86% of adult Americans said "no" when asked, "Should scientists be allowed to create a supply of human embryos to be destroyed in medical research?"

On July 12, the Washington Post reported that a major biotechnology firm, Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester, Massachusetts, already has a project underway to mass-produce human embryos by cloning, in order to use them in experimentation that will kill them -- a practice the bio-tech industry refers to as "therapeutic cloning." The head of the firm told the Wall Street Journal (July 13) that it will begin actual human cloning procedures "soon." Various organizational and individual supporters of legal abortion, including the United Methodist Church and the Council for Responsible Genetics, have endorsed a complete ban on human cloning, including embryo cloning.