Presidential Bioethics Panel
Takes Middle Ground Position on Cloning

July 12, 2002—Washington, DC: A special panel convened by the Bush administration is apparently taking a middle of the road position on human cloning, with a majority of President George W. Bush's bioethics advisers recommending a four-year moratorium on all human cloning to allow for further public debate.

"The moratorium would provide time to debate whether we should cross a crucial moral boundary: creating cloned human life solely as a resource for research," council chairman Leon Kass, a bioethicist at the University of Chicago, wrote in today's edition of the Wall Street Journal.

The President's Council on Bioethics was split on what action Congress should take, but neither of its two recommendations calls for a permanent ban on cloning-for-research, favored by Bush and pro-life groups and approved by the House last year.

"We welcome the Council's rejection, apparently unanimous, of attempts by the pro-cloning advocacy groups to deceive the public into believing that cloning human embryos is not really 'cloning" or does not really produce 'human embryos,'" explained Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life.

In June, pro-cloning Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) said on the Senate floor that the pro-cloning bill she supports would permit research on what she called "unfertilized eggs" up to 14 days old, and she asserted that an "unfertilized egg is not capable of becoming a human being."

The Council declared that somatic cell nuclear transfer using human genetic material is indeed "human cloning,"and indeed produces a "human embryo" -- not merely "cells" or "stem cells" as some
journalists have recently written.

The council's divided report was expected. In February, Kass said he was abandoning hope of finding consensus, since opinions were so diverse.

Members agreed that cloning for reproductive purposes should be banned outright, for both practical and ethical reasons. In this procedure, a cell from one person would be used to create a second person with the same genetic code. The contention begins when the subject turns to so-called therepeutic human cloning -- cloning involving research that destroys human embryos.

Speaking on behalf of Focus on the Family, Carrie Gordon Earll, a bioethics analyst for the pro-life group noted the counsil's split opinion.

"While we would have preferred a total ban on so-called 'research cloning,' at least a majority of the council members recognize the danger in proceeding with human cloning of any kind. Hopefully, this report will serve as a speed bump to slow down the apparent rush to 'clone and kill' human embryos for their stem cells," Earll said.

"The recommended moratorium is only a stopgap measure and does not guarantee that human embryos created by cloning will be protected," Earll explained. "This is disappointing and goes against the views of the general public, the U.S. House of Representatives and President Bush."

It was unclear what influence the report might have in the Senate, where members are also divided over whether to allow cloning for research.

NRLC's Johnson says some pro-cloning senators "are pushing for legislation that would authorize the cloning of human embryos and make the FBI responsible for enforcing a 14-day deadline for killing them."

"Any senator who votes for this clone-to-kill bill would be directly repudiating the Council's majority recommendation, which is to ban all cloning of human embryos for at least four years," Johnson said. He indicated a May Gallup poll reveals 61 percent of Americans surveyed opposed "cloning of human embryos for medical research."

A slim majority - 10 of 18 members - favored a four-year moratorium to allow for further public debate. Seven members argue that scientists should be allowed to move ahead with destructive cloning research under strict government regulations. One member failed to attend most meetings and took no position.

Seven of the 18 members favored a total ban that Bush and pro-life groups support: "We believe it is morally wrong to exploit and destroy developing human life, even for good reasons." They joined with three others who wanted a moratorium, which would give time to develop a system of regulation, to form the majority position.