Senate GOP Leader Calls For Cloning Ban, FDA Set to Investigate (labeled it disturbing)

CNSNews.com) - Widespread skepticism greeted a company's claim that the world's first cloned human being was born Dec. 26, but in Washington, D.C., the incoming Senate GOP leader joined a chorus of cloning foes in calling for a new law banning human cloning.

Even some groups in favor of cloning for research purposes renewed their call for a ban on cloning for reproductive purposes.

For its part, the Food and Drug Administration, citing federal regulations, reportedly is poised to investigate whether the Bahamas-based company called Clonaid did any of its cloning work in the U.S.

Clonaid claims a 31-year-old American woman gave birth to her own cloned baby, named Eve, at 11:55 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 26. Clonaid is linked to a sect called the Raelians, which believes that all human life was created through cloning and genetic engineering by visiting aliens.

Signaling that the Republican Senate may make a cloning ban a priority in the new year, Majority Leader-elect Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) condemned the announcement and labeled it "disturbing."

"While its validity is unclear, it should serve as a chilling reminder that individuals are still trying to clone human beings," said Frist, the Senate's only medical doctor. "These actions offend our human sensibilities and the decency of human life.

"Today's announcement reinforces the need for Congress to continue its efforts to enact a ban on human cloning," said Frist.

"I think that it demonstrates the need for legislation," agreed Richard Lessner, an analyst with the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.

"In this vacuum right now, any group is free to pursue any technology without ethical guidelines, without ethical restraints," Lessner explained.

Blocking tax funding for cloning experiments is crucial, Lessner said, because it's the principal source of funding for so much of the world's medical research.

"While it's true that no U.S. law would constrain a foreign organization or group like this from pursuing this kind of research overseas," Lessner conceded, "I think it's important to note that almost all other countries are looking at restraints on this kind of technology."

The European Union has already passed a moratorium on all government funding of cloning experiments, as has Australia. In the U.S., the House has passed a ban on government funding but legislation stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate. President Bush has said he favors such a ban.

"We have to question whether or not it's true," Lessner added, echoing the reaction of many policy and scientific sources. "So far this organization (Clonaid) has made all sorts of outlandish claims with no way of verifying it whatsoever. There are very large technological obstacles to accomplishing" human cloning.

A wide array of advocacy groups has opposed a blanket ban on cloning, claiming that the technology could lead to cures in many dreaded human diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. It's an argument that found many sympathizers in the previously Democrat-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.) clashed with Republicans over whether and how to allow competing cloning bills onto the floor for a vote.

"We've fooled around in the Senate to the point where we may soon have to deal with the tragedy of a cloned human baby," lamented David Stevens, M.D., the executive director of the 17,000-member Christian Medical Association.

"Sensible people all over the country are horrified that anyone would attempt to clone a human being given the high probability of deaths and gruesome birth defects," said Stevens.

The National Right to Life Committee has "no way to evaluate the validity of claims that a cloned human infant has been born," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for NRLC.

But "what is known for sure is this: multiple laboratories in the U.S. are working towards mass creation of cloned human embryos to use in research that will kill them," said Johnson. "In order to prevent such human embryo farms, and the other horrors of human cloning that will follow, the Senate must act quickly to pass the ... cloning ban."

The Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR) wants tax dollars to fund cloning for scientific research. But in response to Clonaid's announcement, the coalition renewed its call for Congress to ban cloning for reproductive purposes.

"With the news of a birth which potentially resulted from human reproductive cloning, it is more important now than ever that the American public understand the difference between this type of cloning, which seeks to create babies, and somatic cell nuclear transfer, which seeks to create stem cells to treat people with life-threatening diseases and conditions," said Michael Manganiello, president of CAMR.

"It is critical that the Congress act now to ban human reproductive cloning and avoid further delays," Manganiello urged.

Signaling that the Republican Senate may make a cloning ban a priority in the new year, Majority Leader-elect Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) condemned the announcement and labeled it "disturbing." "While its validity is unclear, it should serve as a chilling reminder that individuals are still trying to clone human beings," said Frist, the Senate's only medical doctor. "These actions offend our human sensibilities and the decency of human life. "Today's announcement reinforces the need for Congress to continue its efforts to enact a ban on human cloning," said Frist.

Bravo! Let's see if Freepers can help Mr. Frist & Company to also ban experimentation upon human life in its early stages.

My own knee could jerk very hard to do that, when my foot may be applied to any backsides that get in the way.

Dimensio, it is hardly conservative to take the lives of innocent innocent humans. (And BTW, it's adult stem cells that are proving to be healthy, not those that people might have taken from you, if someone had killed you in the womb.)

Dimensio, it is hardly conservative to take the lives of innocent innocent humans.

I'm not referring to that. I'm referring to reprecussions on legitimate and possibly life-saving research that might be banned not because it actually does anything that you or I consider 'immoral' but because somehow it gets categorized in some broad definition of 'cloning research' that has been outlawed by legislators who didn't bother to carefully word their bills or who simply didn't care to do so because the word 'clone' itself frightens them enough to throw up legal roadblocks.

I don't trust people who claim that they are cloning humans, but I also don't trust legislators to know what they are doing when they start to pen laws to do away with it. My fear is that Congress will pass bills with sweeping restrictions and language that can cover any number of otherwise 'innocent' activities when really the only thing needed to effectively outlaw what most people don't want happening can be done with definitions that are much more narrow. In this case, it looks like any attempt at rational legislation may have been pushed out of the window in a panic caused by the sudden 'announcement' that is very likely a hoax.

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