U.S. Senate Braces for Historic Votes on Human Cloning

[Editor's Note: Please see the Action Alert on page 21 to learn what you can do to affect the outcome of the crucial congressional battle on human cloning outlined below. For the latest updates on the legislative situation, frequently visit the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org. The website now includes new powerful and easy-to-use tools to facilitate contacting your elected representatives with the right message at the right time. See back cover.]

WASHINGTON (June 9, 2002) - - At NRL News deadline, the U.S. Senate was bracing for historic votes on the issue of human cloning.

Before the end of June, the Senate is expected to choose between two radically different approaches to human cloning.

NRLC supports the Brownback-Landrieu bill (S. 1899), which would ban the cloning of human embryos. This bill passed the House of Representatives nearly a year ago, and is supported by President Bush. It is sponsored by Senators Sam Brownback (R-Ks.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.).

But Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) and the great majority of the Senate's Democrats, joined by several Republicans, have lined up against the ban. The Democrats currently control the Senate by a 51 to 49 margin.

Opponents of the Brownback-Landrieu bill, led by the biotechnology industry lobby and groups representing patients with certain diseases, are pushing for radically different bills, called "clone and kill" by pro-life opponents. The biotech-backed bills would allow human embryos to be cloned in any numbers, and would place federal law enforcement agencies in charge of preventing the embryos from surviving past a certain point in their development (that development point differing from bill to bill).

On May 1, Senators Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.), and others introduced a new "clone and kill" proposal (S. 2439), but it differed little in substance from earlier versions.

Many senators who support the Specter-Feinstein bill claim that it would "ban human cloning," but in fact the measure allows human embryos to be cloned for any reason, and purports to ban only the transfer of a cloned human embryo to a uterus "or the functional equivalent of a uterus." They say that this approach would prevent the birth of cloned humans - - which they call "reproductive cloning" - - while allowing research on diseases.

The "clone and kill" scheme has gained some ground over the past several months, notably with the endorsement by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on April 30. (See story, May NRL News, page 1.) However, neither side can yet claim the 60 votes required under Senate rules to "invoke cloture" (end debate), which is usually required to pass legislation on controversial issues.

In a May 15 letter to Senator Brownback, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson strongly criticized the Specter-Feinstein bill and said he would recommend that President Bush veto any such legislation to allow "research cloning."

"The President does not believe that 'reproductive' and 'research' cloning should be treated differently, given that they both require the creation, exploitation, and destruction of human embryos," Thompson wrote, adding that the Specter-Feinstein bill "would put the federal government in the position of permitting the creation of human embryos for research purposes and then mandating their destruction. . . . [T]he Administration could not support any measure that purported to ban 'reproductive' cloning while authorizing 'research' cloning, and I would recommend to the President that he veto such a bill."

On the same day, the Department of Justice said in testimony to a congressional panel that federal law enforcement agencies would face enormous problems in seeking to prevent the implantation of cloned human embryos, once they had already been created, as proposed by the Specter-Feinstein bill.

The testimony was submitted by Daniel J. Bryant, assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, to the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources of the House Committee on Government Reform, chaired by Congressman Mark Souder (R-In.).

Bryant wrote that enforcement of a total ban on cloning human embryos, such as the Brownback-Landrieu bill, "does not seem to pose insuperable challenges to law enforcement. . . . The activity involves certain visible steps and sophisticated equipment, and can be distinguished from the usual process of in vitro fertilization."

In contrast, Bryant wrote, the Specter-Feinstein bill forbids only "implanting or attempting to implant" a cloned embryo. The transfer of human embryos created through in vitro fertilization "is performed thousands of times a year in fertility clinics." Thus, under a Specter-style bill, "Law enforcement would be in the unenviable position of having to impose new and unprecedented scrutiny over doctors in fertility clinics and/or research facilities to ensure that only fertilized embryos were being transferred to would-be mothers," Bryant wrote.

But even with such scrutiny, because there is no reason to believe that cloned human embryos would look any different from "legal" embryos created by in vitro fertilization, law enforcement agents would be unable to tell whether illegal embryo implantations were taking place "even if they were present and observing the activity firsthand."

The Justice Department testimony also noted that under S. 2439, if a cloned human embryo is illegally implanted in a uterus and is developing there, the "cloned fetus could theoretically and conceivably be forfeitable" to the federal government, "raising extremely serious legal, moral, and practical issues." (The entire May 15 Department of Justice testimony is posted on the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org.)

At an April 30 press conference, a reporter asked Specter about the argument that his proposed ban on embryo transfer would be unenforceable. Specter replied, "Law enforcement can handle it."

When a reporter asked, "And if a child was created, what would happen to the child?" Specter responded, "Well, I wouldn't want to speculate about that."

Asked at what point he believed, in the context of cloning, that a human life would begin, Specter replied, "I have not found it helpful to get into the details."

On June 6, NRLC sent a new letter to senators, warning that if the Brownback-Landrieu bill is not enacted, "Countless cloned human embryos will be created to be killed for their stem cells, or to be used as patented 'medical models' - - in effect, as human lab rats." Even worse would be enactment of a clone-and-kill bill such as S. 2439, which "would allow and in fact encourage all of those same evils - - and then add one new and highly objectionable component: It would place the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies in charge of keeping track of countless cloned human embryos and ensuring that none of them survive," NRLC wrote.

"NRLC regards enactment of such a ban on embryo survival as far worse than no legislation at all, and will score any roll call - - including any cloture vote - - in favor of S. 2439 or any similar proposal as a vote in favor of a clone and kill policy and an industry of human embryo farms," NRLC wrote.

(The complete NRLC letter appears on page 19, and on the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org.)

Further Changes Planned

At NRL News deadline, Specter and his allies were reportedly considering further changes in their bill in an attempt to sell it as a "compromise," but none that would change the major thrust of the bill.

NRLC anticipated such changes in its letter, warning, "Whatever additional regulatory and paperwork requirements Senator Specter and his allies tack on to this legislation will not change and should not obscure its essential thrust, which is to establish a federal clone-and-kill policy and encourage the establishment of an industry of what President Bush called human 'embryo farms.'"

According to press reports, one change being considered by Specter is a new provision to prohibit keeping any cloned embryo alive past 12 days of development.

NRLC's Johnson said that proposition "really underscores how their bill would make it a crime not to kill." Under such a proposal, Johnson said, "If somebody calls the FBI and reports that a researcher is harboring 13-day-old cloned embryos, federal agents would be required to seize the embryos and kill them, because their statutory date of execution would have passed."

Sen. Brownback was also considering certain modifications to his bill that might garner additional support from undecided senators.

Johnson noted no dates for the Senate debate have yet been confirmed. Majority Leader Daschle said last November that he would bring up cloning legislation in "February or March." Since then, Daschle has set and then disregarded several later target dates for action. On June 5, Daschle aides said they were "hopeful" the debate would occur before the end of June.

Dorgan-Johnson Implant-and-Kill Bill

Besides critiquing the Specter-Feinstein bill (S. 2439), NRLC's June 6 letter to the Senate (see page 19) warned senators of the radical implications of another pro-cloning bill, S. 2076, introduced by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND). The letter noted, "Like Senator Specter's bill, S. 2076 would permit human embryo farming, but in addition would permit cloned human embryos to be implanted in a 'mammalian uterus' and grown to the fetal stage - - even to advanced stages - - before the desired tissues or organs are harvested, so long as the implantation is not done 'for the purpose of creating a cloned human being.'"

(See "Dorgan-Johnson Bill Would Allow Implant-and-Abort Cloning," May NRL News, page 8, posted at www.nrlc.org/Killing_Embryos/DorganJohnson050802.html.)

On June 5, a cosponsor of Dorgan's bill, Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Mn.), withdrew his cosponsorship. A staff aide explained that Sen. Dayton had become aware that the bill's language could allow implantation of cloned embryos, and that he did not wish to endorse such a policy. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) is the only remaining cosponsor of the bill.

In early June, researchers at the Massachusetts biotech firm Advanced Cell Technology reported they had implanted and grown cloned cow fetuses to the six-week and eight-week stages, after which the fetuses were "retrieved" (aborted). The researchers said that they obtained useful kidney and heart tissue from the cow fetuses, and that the experiment demonstrated the validity of the concept of "therapeutic cloning."

But NRLC's Douglas Johnson commented, "Here is more evidence of the slippery slope. If the Senate allows human embryo farms, we'll soon be seeing human fetus farms, in which cloned babies are grown to obtain tissues for transplantation."

Since late February, NRLC and NRLC affiliates have sponsoring anti-cloning radio ads in 11 states. You can listen to or read these ads on the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org. NRLC legislative strategists believe that additional ads are needed to help promote the Brownback Bill to ban human cloning, but few if any will run unless additional financial resources become available. Donations to support the ad campaign can be directed to NRLC, 512-10th Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C. 20004. Mark your donation for the "No Human Embryo Farms Campaign."

Resources on Cloning

The National Right to Life website (http://www.nrlc.org//) contains factsheets and other key documents on human cloning, in the section headed "Human Cloning Documents." The website also includes powerful new tools for communicating with Congress on human cloning and other pro-life issues.

Many of the groups supporting the ban cooperate under a loose-knit coalition called "Americans to Ban Cloning," which maintains an informative website, http://www.cloninginformation.org/. This website includes pro-cloning and anti-cloning TV and radio ads from various groups.

In a speech to anti-cloning advocates on April 10, President Bush strongly urged the Senate to pass the bill quickly. You can read or listen to the President's speech at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/04/print/20020410-4.html.

On May 14, the Gallup polling firm released a national poll that contained numerous questions on cloning. By a margin of 90-8%, respondents opposed "cloning that is designed specifically to result in the birth of a human being." By a margin of 61-34%, respondents expressed disapproval of "cloning of human embryos for use in medical research."