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Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2001

The House voted 265-162 to ban both, wading into a scientific and ethical vortex similar to the situation President Bush has been struggling with for months over stem-cell research.

While both sides in a heated House debate Tuesday agreed the government should ban cloning human beings, lawmakers clashed over whether human embryos should be cloned for scientific research.

"Cloning treats human embryos, the basic elements of life itself, as a simple raw material," said House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas. "This exploitative, unholy technique is no better than medical strip mining."

But some lawmakers said the bill would derail possibly vital medical breakthroughs. "This would stop ongoing studies to help people suffering from a whole litany of life-threatening diseases," said House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, D-Mich.

In a statement Tuesday after the House vote, Bush said: "The moral issues posed by human cloning are profound and have implications for today and for future generations.

"Today's overwhelming and bipartisan House action to prohibit human cloning is a strong and ethical statement, which I commend. We must advance the promise and cause of science, but we must do so in a way that honors and respects life."

At issue is a process called "somatic cell nuclear transfer" to clone an embryo. That process includes stripping the 23 chromosomes from a human egg, replacing them with the chromosomes from a human being, and stimulating those cells to begin division. From there, researchers can then cull scientifically valuable and flexible "stem cells."

Scottish scientists in 1997 used that same basic process to plant a viable egg in a sheep and create the famous cloned sheep named Dolly. Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., drafted the bill the House passed, H.R. 2505, banning cloning and the cloning of human cells for research. Reps. Jim Greenwood, R-Pa., and Peter Deutsch, D-Fla., drafted H.R. 2172, an amendment rejected in a 249-178 vote, that would have banned human cloning but would have regulated the research and allowed it to continue.

The White House is opposed to cloning embryos for research. "The administration is strongly opposed to any legislation that would prohibit human cloning for reproductive purposes but permit the creation of cloned embryos for research," the White House said in a prepared statement.

National Right to Life Committee's Douglas Johnson opposes cloning embryos for research. "The House has acted to block the creation of human embryo farms," Johnson, the group's legislative director, wrote members in a July 30 letter. Johnson urged the Senate to do the same - an unclear prospect.

National Abortion Rights Action League spokesman William Lutz declined to weigh in. "Research is a concern for us," Lutz said. "But when it comes to these bills, it is just not about the right to choose."

Some major medical groups, including American Medical Association, also declined to weigh in. Members of that group have also been split on the ethics surrounding the stem-cell research issue.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said the cells just do not count as human life. "Some of us believe a clump of cells do not have the same rights as a person who is suffering from a human disease," Nadler said. "The clump of cells does not have the same value as a human being."

Bush has struggled for months over whether to use taxpayer money for stem-cell research. Human stem cells are considered particularly valuable for medical research because they have the potential to become any kind of tissue. Such cells can be culled from a variety of sources, including human embryos. Embryonic stem cells have the most flexibility to differentiate into different tissues and are considered by many researchers to hold the greatest potential for finding treatments for ailments such as diabetes, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, though others say adult stem cells could be used.

Some of Bush's closest allies, including Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., have said they would support such research so long as human embryos are not created solely for manufacturing stem cells for research.

Some lawmakers admitted Tuesday that they did not know enough about the issue to cast a constructive vote. "I feel like I don't know what I need to know before I cast a vote on this important issue," said Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass. Rep. Diane DeGette, D-Colo., called the debate "one of the most complex medical and ethical issues the House will ever face."

Copyright 2001 by United Press International.

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