WASHINGTON (August 8, 2001) - - Congress may decide the fate of many thousands of embryonic human beings by roll call votes that are likely to occur during the months immediately ahead. The outcome of these congressional battles depends on immediate grassroots actions by pro-life citizens nationwide.

Banning Human Cloning

NRLC believes each human life at every stage of biological development is deserving of respect and protection, regardless of the circumstances under which that human life was created. In contrast, biotechnology corporations wish to use cloning to mass-produce human embryos so that they can be used - - and killed - - in medical research.

On July 31, the House of Representatives passed the Human Cloning Prohibition Act (H.R. 2505), sponsored by pro-life Reps. Dave Weldon (R-Fl.) and Bart Stupak (D-Mi.). This bill, which is supported by NRLC and many other organizations, would prohibit the use of cloning to create any human beings, including human embryos.

However, the Weldon-Stupak bill faces intense opposition from the powerful Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), which represents some 1,000 biotechnology corporations, including some that wish to use cloning to mass-produce human embryos in order to harvest their stem cells for medical research, or to subject them to other lethal manipulations. The biotechnology firms refer to this as "therapeutic cloning," but pro-life groups call it "clone and kill."

BIO is now determined to stop the bill in the U.S. Senate. It is expected that BIO-allied senators will try to kill the bill by getting a majority of senators to support a substitute bill -- a measure that would allow the cloning of human embryos to be destroyed for research purpose (the so-called "therapeutic cloning"), but make it a criminal offense to allow any such embryo to grow up by implanting him or her in a woman's womb -- a practice which BIO and its allies refer to as "reproductive cloning."

In the Senate, pro-life Senator Sam Brownback (R-Ks.) is leading the fight to ban all human cloning, including the cloning of human embryos. He has introduced a cloning ban (S. 790) that is very similar to the bill passed by the House.

Embryo-Destructive Stem Cell Research

In 2000, the Clinton Administration authorized the federal National Institutes of Health (NIH) to begin accepting applications from researchers who want federal money to do research on stem cells that are obtained by killing human embryos, who are usually five or six days old. However, the Bush Administration has blocked any such grants from actually being approved while it reviews the Clinton policy.

As the news media have covered extensively in recent months, President Bush is personally engaged in an intensive study of the issue. NRLC and other pro-life organizations are urging the President to nullify the Clinton guidelines and prevent any federal funding for research that uses stem cells obtained by killing an embryonic human being.

The majority leader of the Senate, pro-abortion Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD), says that if President Bush does attempt to permanently block funding of embryo-destructive stem cell research, Daschle will quickly challenge the President by moving legislation to the Senate floor to mandate such funding. Presumably, that legislation would be some version of a bill proposed by Senators Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) (S. 723), which would authorize federal funding of all stages of embryo-destructive research, including the actual killing of human embryos.

Thus, it is critical that both senators and U.S. House members hear from constituents who oppose federal funding of embryo-destructive research. In a national poll conducted in early June by International Communications Research, the public opposed federal funding of stem cell research in which "live embryos would be destroyed in their first week of development," by a margin of 70% to 24%.

Fortunately, stem cells may be obtained for medical research without killing human embryos. Researchers have obtained stem cells from adult fat, blood, and bone marrow, and also from umbilical cords and placentas. In the early June poll, the public supported the funding of these ethical alternatives to embryo-killing research, 67% to 18%.

On June 7, Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced the Responsible Stem Cell Research Act (H.R. 2096), to authorize expanded federal funding of research using stem cells from these sources.

Actions Requested

*** Also, urge the lawmakers to oppose Senator Specter's S. 723, which would authorize federal funding of research in which human embryos would be killed in order to obtain their stem cells.

The address for all U.S. Senators is:

Senator ____________ U.S. Senate Washington, D.C. 20510

*** Please write to your U.S. House member. Urge him or her to oppose federal funding of any stem cell research in which human embryos are harmed. Encourage the representative to support the Responsible Stem Cell Research Act (H.R. 2096), sponsored by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), which would expand federal funding of research on stem cells obtained from adults and from umbilical cords -- without harming human embryos.

Also, check the roll call votes that the House conducted on July 31 on the issue of banning human cloning, which can be accessed through the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org, and which also are to be published in the August issue of National Right to Life News. Commend or admonish your representative, as appropriate, for his or her votes on that issue.

[VSHL Note: The following Representatives voted FOR the cloning ban (the Weldon-Stupak bill): Jo Ann Davis (R-1), Ed Schrock (R-2), Randy Forbes (R-4), Virgil Goode (I-5), Bob Goodlatte (R-6), Eric Cantor (R-7), Frank Wolf (R-10), and Tom Davis (R-11).
The following Representatives voted AGAINST the cloning ban: Bobby Scott (D-3), Jim Moran (D-8), and Rick Boucher (D-9).]

The address for all members of the House of Representatives is:

The Honorable _______________ U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515

A NOTE ON E-MAIL: If you use e-mail to write to a lawmaker, be sure to include your regular mailing address in the e-mail. Otherwise, your representative has no way of knowing whether you are actually his or her constituent. For E-mail to Representatives, you may use www.house.gov/writerep. For E-mail to Virginia senators, send to Senator George Allen and Senator John Warner.

***Send a short letter to the letters column of your local newspaper(s), encouraging citizens to contact their senators to urge support for banning all human cloning, in order to prevent the use of cloning to mass-produce human embryos for research that will kill them. Check with the paper first to find out the paper's length limit - - generally, about 250 words.

***You can greatly assist NRLC's lobbying efforts by sending a copy of any response from a lawmaker, and any local press report or editorial dealing with these issues, to:

National Right to Life Committee
Federal Legislative Office
419-Seventh Street, Northwest
Suite 500
Washington, D.C. 20004
Phone: (202) 626-8820
Fax: (202) 347-3668
E-Mail: Legfederal@aol.com

Resources

VSHL is the Virginia affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee.