Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The campaign committee that spent $35 million last year backing California's novel $3 billion stem cell initiative plans to use its considerable fund-raising prowess to fight a federal bill seeking to ban all forms of human cloning. Robert Klein II, the wealthy Palo Alto housing developer who chaired the campaign, said the organization intends to raise $1 million to fight Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, and his anti-cloning allies in the Senate. A Brownback spokesman declined comment. Brownback is sponsoring legislation that would ban the cloning of human embryos for any reason, including medical research. Such a...

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. diplomats abandoned contentious efforts to draft a treaty that would outlaw human cloning and will likely settle for a weaker declaration that won't seek a comprehensive ban, officials said. The last-minute agreement on Thursday appeared to be a major blow to President Bush (news - web sites), who had called for a total ban on cloning when he spoke before the U.N. General Assembly in August. While there is near universal support among the United Nations (news - web sites)' 191 members to ban reproductive cloning — the cloning of babies — countries have wrestled over...