Congress May Vote Soon On Creation
And Killing Of Human Embryos

WASHINGTON (August 3, 2001) - - As discussed in articles elsewhere in this issue, Congress may decide the fate of many thousands of embryonic human beings by roll call votes that are likely to occur over the weeks and months immediately ahead.

The outcome of these congressional battles depends on immediate grassroots action by pro-life citizens nationwide.

Banning Human Cloning

Human cloning is a proposed process in which genetic material from one person would be artificially transferred into a human or animal egg cell, thereby beginning the life of a new human individual who has only one parent and who is genetically identical to that parent.

NRLC believes each human life at every stage of biological development is deserving of respect and protection, regardless of the circumstances under which that human life was created. In contrast, biotechnology corporations wish to use cloning to mass-produce human embryos so that they can be used - - and killed - - in medical research.

On July 31, the House of Representatives passed the Human Cloning Prohibition Act (H.R. 2505), sponsored by pro-life Reps. Dave Weldon (R-Fl.) and Bart Stupak (D-Mi.). (See the story on page one of this issue.)

This bill, which is supported by NRLC and many other organizations, would prohibit the use of cloning to create any human beings, including human embryos.

However, the Weldon-Stupak bill faces intense opposition from the powerful Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), which represents some 1,000 biotechnology corporations, including some that wish to use cloning to mass-produce human embryos in order to harvest their stem cells for medical research, or to subject them to other lethal manipulations. The biotechnology firms refer to this as "therapeutic cloning," but pro-life groups call it "clone and kill."

BIO is now determined to stop the bill in the U.S. Senate. It is expected that BIO-allied senators will try to kill the bill by getting a majority of senators to support a substitute bill - - a measure that would allow the cloning of human embryos to be destroyed for research purposes (the so-called "therapeutic cloning"), but make it a criminal offense to allow any such embryo to grow up by implanting him or her in a woman's womb, a practice which BIO and its allies refer to as "reproductive cloning."

In the Senate, pro-life Senator Sam Brownback (R-Ks.) is leading the fight to ban all human cloning, including the cloning of human embryos. He has introduced a cloning ban (S. 790) that is very similar to the bill passed by the House.

Embryo-Destructive Stem Cell Research

In addition to the human cloning issue, a congressional battle is brewing over the question of whether the federal government should provide funds for stem

cell research in which human embryos are killed. In 2000, the Clinton Administration authorized the federal National Institutes of Health to begin accepting applications from researchers who want federal money to do research on stem cells that are obtained by killing human embryos, who are usually five or six days old. However, the Bush Administration blocked any such grants from actually being approved while it reviewed the Clinton policy.

On August 9, President Bush announced that the federal government will not fund research that would require the killing of human embryos. Only research on approximately 60 existing stem cell lines previously derived from embryos would be funded.

Before the President's announcement, the majority leader of the Senate, pro-abortion Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD), said that if President Bush blocked funding of embryo-destructive stem cell research, Daschle would quickly challenge the President by moving legislation to the Senate floor to mandate such funding. After the President's speech on August 9, Daschle warned, "the Senate will want to take action"to authorize funding of stem cell research that would require the destruction of human embryos. (Los Angeles Times, August 10, 2001)

Presumably, that legislation would be some version of a bill proposed by Senators Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Tom Harkin (D- Iowa) (S. 723), which would authorize federal funding of all stages of embryo-destructive research, including the actual killing of human embryos.

Thus, it is critical that both senators and U.S. House members hear from constituents who oppose federal funding of research that would require the destruction of human embryos. In a national poll conducted in early June by International Communications Research, the public opposed federal funding of stem cell research in which "live embryos would be destroyed in their first week of development," by a margin of 70% to 24%.

Fortunately, stem cells may be obtained for medical research without killing human embryos. Researchers have obtained stem cells from adult fat, blood, and bone marrow, and also from umbilical cords and placentas. In the early June poll, the public supported the funding of these ethical alternatives to embryo-killing research, 67% to 18%.

On June 7, Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced the Responsible Stem Cell Research Act (H.R. 2096), to authorize expanded federal funding of research using stem cells from these sources. Senator John Ensign (R-Nv.) has introduced a similar bill (S. 1349) in the Senate.