On June 6, the House defeated, 204-213, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2007 (H.R. 2560), sponsored by Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), that would have prohibited reproductive human cloning. The measure would have created criminal and civil penalties for any individual or entity that performs or attempts to perform reproductive human cloning. The bill would have prohibited individuals or entities from shipping or receiving the product of human cloning. It would not have affected therapeutic cloning.
Reproductive cloning involves the development of a complete individual from a single body cell, such as the creation of the sheep Dolly. Therapeutic cloning creates embryonic stem cells that are used for biomedical research.
Rep. DeGette said, “Human reproductive cloning is morally and scientifically wrong. Unfortunately, at this time, though, there is nothing to prevent irresponsible individuals from conducting research in an attempt to achieve human reproductive cloning. The most effective way to prevent human reproductive cloning in the United States is to pass a federal prohibition on this practice and impose severe penalties for doing so.” Rep. DeGette criticized some her colleagues for opposing the legislation, saying she “[found] it ironic that those who oppose our bill argue that one of its flaws is that it would force all cloned embryos to be killed. The bill bans human reproductive cloning. Nothing more, nothing less. So the argument of those who say they are against cloning is that we should defeat our bill to prevent cloned embryos from being killed. It defies logic, just like it defies logic why anyone would vote against this bill.”
Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) disagreed that the bill would have banned reproductive cloning: “H.R. 2560 does nothing to prevent human cloning. In fact, the bill allows for unlimited cloning of human embryos, but prevents women and doctors from trying to implant one of these embryos to initiate a pregnancy. In practice, this means that embryos will be cloned, used for experimentation, harvesting, research, [and] then assigned a death sentence. So cloned embryos would be required by law to die. Not only does this bill allow the practice of cloning to move forward, it also mandates the killing of those human embryos. The bill before us today is a ruse. It is not a ban on cloning. It is a permission to clone, and I hope no one here today will be confused about what we are being asked to do…To put it directly, this bill would create a class of living human beings that must be killed under the law.”
