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US House Panel Passes Anti-Cloning Bill
A US House Committee voted to impose a complete ban on human cloning and importation of products derived from cloned embryos, such as stem cells, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The bill, sponsored by Republican congressman Dave Weldon of Florida, would make it a crime to even attempt human cloning and to ship, receive or import cloned embryos or products derived from them. The ban would apply to both public and private entities and would carry steep penalties: a prison term of as many as 10 years and fines that could top 1 million U.S. dollars.
After committee passage on Tuesday, the Weldon bill now moves to the full House for consideration. A competing bill, sponsored by Republican James Greenwood of Pennsylvania, would ban reproductive cloning but allow therapeutic cloning. It will be presented to the Commerce Committee on Friday, which would set the stage for a showdown between the two measures.
The Wall Street Journal report said that even if the House passes a ban on all cloning, it faces an uphill fight in the Senate where a number of senators who oppose abortion have said they support stem-cell research.
Many members of Congress from both parties support a ban on cloning intended to create a child. But some members of Congress, especially Democrats, support so-called therapeutic cloning, which involves creating embryos for scientific research, not reproduction.
Scientists believe the stem cells they could extract from the embryos may lead to treatments for diseases such as juvenile diabetes and Parkinson's disease.
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