Urgent Congressional Alert:
U.S. Senate to Vote on Human Embryo Cloning Ban Before May 24!

WASHINGTON (April 14, 2002) -- One of the most important pro-life votes ever conducted in the U.S. Senate will occur before May 24 . The Senate will vote on whether to ban the cloning of human embryos.

For a detailed report on recent developments, see "In Historic Speech, President Bush Urges U.S. Senate to Ban Human Embryo Cloning, But Democratic Leader Says No."

Please urge ALL U.S. senators to support S. 1899, address is http://thomas.loc.gov, sponsored by Senators Sam Brownback and Mary Landrieu. The Brownback-Landrieu bill is the ONLY bill that would really ban human cloning.

Urge them to oppose "clone and kill" legislation that would permit the cloning of human embryos but require that they be killed in experimentation (such as bills proposed by Senators Feinstein, Kennedy, Harkin, and Specter). These bills would permit the establishment of human "embryo farms" and the mass destruction of human embryos.

And, urge your fellow citizens to do the same. Time is short.

Beginning immediately, pro-life citizens should phone, fax, and/or e-mail the offices of both U.S. Senators for their states.

Information on how to send e-mails to a specific senator, and in some cases fax numbers, may be obtained at the website http://www.senate.gov/. (Always be sure to include your regular return mailing address in e-mails, so that the senator’s staff can see that you are a constituent.) This website will lead you to the home pages of your own senator’s, where contact information is available.

Please utilize newsletters, church bulletins, call-in radio shows, and other means to alert other pro-life citizens to this crucial fight. Also, write short letters to the letters columns of local newspapers, highlighting the critical votes that senators will soon cast.

• Urge the senators to vote for the bill (S. 1899) backed by President Bush and sponsored by Senators Sam Brownback (R-Ks.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) [pronounced "land-rew"]. THIS IS THE ONLY BILL THAT REALLY BANS ALL FORMS OF HUMAN CLONING. A current list of cosponsors of the bill appears below.

• Don’t be deceived by senators who say that they oppose "the cloning of human beings," but support some bill other than Brownback-Landrieu! The Brownback-Landrieu bill is the ONLY bill that bans the cloning of human embryos. Urge the senators to oppose the counterproposals, such as those sponsored by Senators Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) (S. 1893) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) and Ted Kennedy (D-Ma.) (S. 1758), or any new proposal that would permit the cloning of human embryos and the establishment of human embryo farms. These bills are falsely labeled as bans on "human cloning," but in reality they allow human embryos to be created by cloning, while making it a crime to allow any such human embryo to live by implanting him or her in a womb. These "clone and kill" sham bills must be defeated before the Senate can pass a true ban on human cloning.

• If you obtain information on any senator's position (including information reported in the press), please forward it to NRLC by e-mail to Legfederal@aol.com (preferred), or by fax to (202) 347-3668, or by regular mail to NRLC, Federal Legislation, 512-10th Street Northwest, Washington, D.C. 20004-1401.

• PHONE CALLS can be directed to the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Ask for your senator’s office. Once connected, explain that you are a constituent, politely convey your position in support of the Brownback-Landrieu bill (S. 1899), and ask for a written response explaining the senator’s position.

• Information on how to send E-MAIL to any specific senator is available by going to the Senate website at http://www.senate.gov/, and then clicking to your senator’s home page. Be sure to include your regular mailing address in the text of your e-mails, so that the senators know that the message comes from their constituents.

• FAXES can be sent to Senate offices that publish a fax number (see http://www.senate.gov/).

• REGULAR MAIL can be sent to Senator ___________, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510 – BUT REGULAR MAIL IS CURRENTLY BEING DELAYED BY SECURITY MEASURES AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED ON.

• PUBLIC EVENTS: Senators often visit their home states to participate in public events. Pro-life citizens should take advantage of any opportunities to speak directly with senators about this urgent issue.

Further information on the human cloning issue is available on the NRLC website at http://www.nrlc.org/ under "Federal Legislation: Killing Human Embryos (http://www.nrlc.org/Old/oldIndex.html).

A number of excellent factsheets on the human cloning issue have been issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. They are available at the USCCB website at www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/bioethic/factsheets.htm.

In addition, "Americans to Ban Cloning," a coalition of anti-cloning groups, maintains an excellent website that contains much useful information: http://www.cloninginformation.org/.

Don’t Assume!

Do not assume that pro-abortion senators are necessarily opposed to the Brownback legislation. As discussed elsewhere in this issue, the proposed ban on cloning human embryos is receiving strong support from a number of organizations that are not pro-life on issues such as abortion, but which believe that human cloning -- including the cloning of human embryos -- must be banned immediately. One self-described "pro-choice" senator, Mary Landrieu (D-La.), is the primary cosponsor of the Brownback bill.

On the other hand, do not assume that every pro-life senator will automatically vote for the Brownback legislation. Some are inclined to follow the claims of the biotech lobby and some research advocacy groups that so-called "therapeutic cloning" is necessary to advance medical science. It is important that these senators understand that a vote in favor of a clone-and-kill bill is a vote in favor of human embryo farms and the establishment of a new industry based on the creation and patenting of members of the species homo sapiens for profit.

As of April 14, 2002, the following 29 U.S. Senators had sponsored the genuine ban on human cloning (S. 1899), sponsored by Senator Sam Brownback (R-Ks.) (in order of state): Shelby (R-Al.), Sessions (R-Al.), Murkowski (Ak.), Hutchinson (R-Ar.), Kyl (R-Az.), Allard (R-Co.), Grassley (R-Iowa), Bunning (R-Ky.), Craig (R-Id.), Crapo (R-Id.), Fitzgerald (R-Il.), McConnell (R-Ky.), Landrieu (D-La.), Lott (R-Ms.), Bond (R-Mo.), Burns (R-Mt.), Hagel (R-Ne.), Ensign (R-Nv.), Gregg (R-NH), Robert Smith (R-NH), Helms (R-NC), DeWine (R-Ohio), Voinovich (R-Ohio), Nickles (R-Ok.), Inhofe (R-Ok.), Santorum (R-Pa.), Enzi (R-Wy.), and Bennett (R-Utah).

Four senators have sponsored the competing "clone and kill" bill (S. 1893) introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). This bill is misleadingly labeled as a "human cloning prohibition," but in reality it would permit so-called "therapeutic cloning" -- that is, it would allow the cloning of human embryos, but forbid these embryos to be placed in a womb. Harkin’s cosponsors are Boxer (D-Ca.), Reid (D-Nv.), and Specter (R-Pa.).

In addition, eight senators have sponsored the similar "clone and kill" bill (S. 1758) introduced by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.). The sponsors are, in addition to Feinstein: Boxer (D-Ca.), Miller (D-Ga.), Durbin (D-Il.), Mikulski (D-Md.), Kennedy (D-Ma.), Corzine (D-NJ), and Clinton (D-NY).

On April 9, 2002, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) introduced a third bill (S. 2076) that would prohibit only the implantation of cloned human embryos (thereby, in effect, establishing a "clone and kill" policy). Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) co-sponsored that bill on April 12.

You can obtain up-to-date lists of the cosponsors and status of these bills (or any other congressional legislation) on the congressional website known as "Thomas," at http://thomas.loc.gov/.