"Clone and Kill"

H.R. 2560, the so-called "Human Cloning Prohibition Act" was defeated Wednesday in the House. The legislation bill would have outlawed cloning for reproductive purposes but would have legalized cloning for research. The bill was introduced by Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Co.) in a manner designed to push it through as quickly as possible.

Douglas Johnson, federal legislative director of National Right to Life, commented, "The House Democratic leadership tried to ram through a bill to pave the way for cloned human embryo farms, but their scam failed."

He also noted, "Any statement in any news story claiming that the bill would have banned 'cloning a human being' is false. Successful use of the cloning process called 'somatic cell nuclear transfer' (the same cloning process that created Dolly the sheep and thousands of other mammalian clones), utilizing human genetic material, will produce an embryo of the species Homo sapiens, which biologically is a human being. A journalist who asserts that this bill 'bans the cloning of a human being,' when the bill clearly permits the mass creation of human embryos by cloning, has embraced the position that a human embryo is not a human being -- which is, to say the least, taking one side's position on a hotly disputed subject."

Today, June 7, the House is set to vote on S.5, legislation that would mandate federal funding for embryo-killing stem cell research. The White House has promised a veto. For more information visit the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org.