| Opinion
-- Senate Must Approve Ban On Cloning
By Don Nelson
President, Nevada LIFE
Reno Gazette
Journal
May 9, 2002 09:21 pm
A vote on one of the most important biotechnology and
life issues legislation of our time is stalled in the
United States Senate. That issue is human cloning. Reports
that three women are pregnant with human clones, that
Chinese scientists have cloned embryos using human DNA
and rabbit eggs, along with the rush to patent human embryos
for research, demonstrates that the manufacturing and
exploitation of human life are no longer just bad science
fiction.
In human cloning, genetic material from the cell or cells
of a cloned person is transferred into an egg (of a woman)
whose DNA has been removed. This creates a human embryo,
a new living organism of the human species.
The Senate needs to pass the Brownback-Landrieu Human
Cloning Prohibition Act (S. 1899, co-sponsored by Sen.
John Ensign) to ban all human cloning to stop this exploitation.
Two other bills, S. 1893 (co-sponsored by Sen. Harry Reid)
and S. 1758 would ban so-called “reproductive”
cloning – the birth of a human clone, but would allow
“research” or “therapeutic” cloning.
Research cloning creates human embryos for the sole purpose
of destroying them for their stem cells and other research.
Employing Orwellian tactics, sponsoring senators can claim
to “oppose cloning” because these bills redefine
cloning not as the creation of the cloned embryo but as
the transplantation of a cloned embryo into a uterus.
These bills only ban the implantation and birth of cloned
humans.
A complete cloning ban is necessary for several reasons.
First, all cloning is reproductive. Cloning reproduces
another member of our species. Creating human life to
destroy it diminishes human dignity. It cheapens human
life and turns it into a commodity. S. 1758 and S. 1893
create a new class of humans whose existence is illegal
and whose destruction is required. Progress that is ethical
must not be at the expense of others and our general human
dignity.
Second, research cloning is unnecessary. Progress in
stem cell research and other medical advances do not depend
on cloning. While there are no current therapeutic applications
from cloning, there are a large number of current applications
that have been used to alleviate and cure diseases using
adult stem cells, umbilical cord blood and other stem
cell research, which does not involve the destruction
of human life.
Third, anything less than a total ban will be unenforceable.
The millions of embryos required for mass applications
insure that many implantations of these human clones will
occur.
Cloning is dangerous. Human eggs will be harvested by
giving women high doses of hormones to produce them and
by using surgery to retrieve them. The large number of
eggs needed to commercialize this therapy will lead to
the exploitation of women.
Cloning is also dangerous to ethics. Cloning is not the
beginning of a slippery slope, but one result of a long
slide down that slope. Organs have recently been grown
in cloned cows and implanted in the donor cow. Headless
animals have been manufactured.
Unless we say no to human cloning and pursue other avenues
of available research, it will not be long before it is
suggested that we likewise tamper with human life. Perhaps
that is why four out of five Americans oppose experimental
cloning research.
The Senate needs to pass S. 1899, the Brownback-Landrieu
Human Cloning Prohibition Act to prevent further exploitation
and tampering with human life. Every Nevadan needs to
make his or her voice heard to our United States senators.
Don Nelson is the President of Nevada LIFE (Life Issues
Forum and Education).
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