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Human
Cloning Begins At Harvard & UCSF. Senator
Reid Blocks Legislation To Prevent It.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 8, 2006
The
Following Statement Can Be Attributed To Nevada LIFE
President Don Nelson:
Senator
Harry Reid’s opposition to a human cloning ban is
directly responsible for allowing researchers at
Harvard and UC San Francisco to try to clone human
beings for research. This clone and kill process
creates a human clone and then kills the clone for its
embryonic stem cells. There is no way to create
human embryonic stem cells without killing a human
embryo. The House of Representatives has
repeatedly passed the Weldon-Stupak Human Cloning
Prohibition Act to prohibit human cloning, including
the creation of human clones for research.
Senator Reid and others have kept it from passing in
the Senate. Reid supports clone and kill
legislation which would allow and promote this kind of
destructive human research at Harvard and UCSF.
There
is a DIFFERENCE between Harvard and the cloning for
research politicians and the biotech lobby.
It’s honesty. Harvard experimenters admit they
are cloning and creating human embryos for
destruction. Cloning to kill politicians have
tried to redefine cloning as occurring only when the
clone is implanted in a uterus. Like Reid, they
have made ridiculous claims that the process of
cloning (called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer) creates
stem cells immediately without first having to create
and destroy an embryo to obtain those embryonic stem
cells. That’s because a May 2006 International
Communications Research poll found that 81 percent
oppose producing human embryos for research.
Human
cloning for any reason is a direct assault on human
dignity because it treats human beings and human life
as a commodity. The Senate needs to pass the
Brownback Landrieu Human Cloning Prohibition Act to
stop this abuse of human dignity.
Other
notes: embryonic stem cell research has not
produced a single cure and there are no human trials.
Stem cell research that does not destroy human life
and uses non-embryonic “adult” stem cells has
achieved over 65 successes and cures. There are
over 300 human trials underway. Adult stem cells
have overcome the perceived advantages of embryonic
stem cells, are easier to use, and don’t pose
rejection problems. Researchers have found
embryonic-like stem cells in the body, placenta or
umbilical cords that do not require embryo
destruction. Other research attempts to regress
adult stem cells into an embryonic state through
chemical processes. These means are ethically
permissible because they do not destroy human life.
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