The US House of Representatives yesterday voted to ban all human cloning, including for medicalresearch, threatening violators with 10-year prison terms andmillion-dollar fines.
The ban is a setback for the US scientific community, whichsought to clone embryos to harvest their stem cells, thebuilding-block human cells that could unlock cures for fatal andincurable diseases including Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and diabetes.
The sweeping 265-162 vote, which also bans imports from anycountry that allows cloning, is a victory for President George W. Bush and comes as the president wrestles with whether to allowfederal funding for controversial stem cell research, including onembryonic cells.
"The moral issues posed by human cloning are profound and haveimplications for today and for future generations," President Bush said in astatement.
"Today's (Tuesday's) overwhelming and bipartisan House action to prohibit human cloning is a strong ethical statement, which Icommend. We must advance the promise and cause of science, but mustdo so in a way that honors and respects life."
Instead, President Bush "strongly approves" the development of therapiesbased on research using cloning to produce molecules, DNA, tissues,organs, plants, cells other than human embryos or animals other thanhumans, the White House said.
Sympathetic lawmakers supported active lobbying by scientistsfor access to federal funds for research on the embryonic stemcells.
The Human Cloning Prohibition Act, said Florida Democrat Mr Peter Deutsch in the intense three-hour debate leading up to the vote,"while laudable in its intent, is overly broad and will close thedoor to one of the most promising aspects of stem cell research."
Mr Deutsch had offered a substitute bill that would have bannedhuman cloning only when used to initiate a pregnancy, leaving thedoor open to therapeutic cloning, which can be used in life-savingtreatments - for example, to "grow" replacement tissues, bone andeven whole organs.
"All members of Congress agree on a ban on human cloning.However, therapeutic use of somatic cell nuclear transfer is the keyto unlocking the miracles of stem cell therapies," he said.
An almost identical companion to the House bill is currently inthe Senate Judiciary committee but is not expected to be debateduntil September at the earliest.
AFP