[Editor's note on 12/4/01: This vote did not take place as expected below. It is now likely that the Senate will not take up the cloning issue until February or March.]

Date of This Alert: November 30, 2001

In light of this week's claim that a Massachusetts bio-tech firm has cloned human embryos, pro-life Senator Sam Brownback (R-Ks.) and Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott (R-Ms.) are attempting to win Senate approval of legislation to prevent the cloning of human embryos.

Such legislation, the Weldon-Stupak Human Cloning Prohibition Act (H.R. 2505), was already passed by the House of Representatives on July 31, 265-162. However, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) has declared his support for experimental cloning (that is, the cloning of human embryos to kill them, which the bio-tech industry calls "therapeutic cloning"). Therefore, Daschle is currently working to block any measure that would immediately restrict the cloning of embryos. Daschle has previously agreed to allow the Senate to debate the cloning issue next February or March.

This conflict has led to a complicated procedural situation, which will result in an important procedural vote on Monday, December 3, at 5 p.m. Eastern Time.

The Senate is considering a popular bill dealing with railroad pension programs. Senator Lott has offered an amendment, co-sponsored by Senator Brownback, that contains two parts: (1) an omnibus Republican energy bill, and (2) a ban on all human cloning like the bill passed by the House, except that it would expire after six months.

ACTION REQUIRED

Please immediately generate PHONE CALLS to both the Washington and in-state offices of ALL U.S. senators. E-mail may also be used. Regular mail is not useful because of the short time remaining in the session and current difficulties in mail delivery on Capitol Hill. Here are key points that those who call or send e-mails should make:

• They should urge the senator(s) to vote for legislation to ban the cloning of human embryos whenever such opportunities are presented to them, including support for the Lott-Brownback six-month ban AND for the full ban already passed by the House (H.R. 2505).
• They should make it clear that they oppose HUMAN EMBRYO FARMS, and therefore they OPPOSE any counterproposal that would merely prohibit the implantation of any cloned embryo in a woman's womb (so-called "reproductive cloning"). This "clone and kill" proposal (which we expect to be introduced by Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Ca.) would result in the establishment of HUMAN EMBRYO FARMS, where human embryos would be mass produced and killed for the purpose of harvesting their cells, but would make it a crime to allow any such human embryo to live.
• They should urge the senator(s) to vote with Senator Brownback on ALL PROCEDURAL MOTIONS that involve the human cloning issue, including any CLOTURE votes.

Do NOT assume that pro-abortion senators are necessarily opposed to the Brownback-Weldon-Stupak legislation. The bill is receiving strong support from a number of organizations that are not pro-life on issues such as abortion, BUT which believe that human cloning -- including the cloning of human embryos -- must be banned immediately. These groups include the United Methodist Church, the International Center for Technology Assessment, and Friends of the Earth (a well-known environmental organization).

As an example, we are reproducing below a statement made at a November 26 press conference by Brent Blackwelder, the president of Friends of the Earth. NRLC and VSHL do not endorse all of the views expressed therein, but we provide this statement as an illustration of the breadth of the emerging coalition against human cloning -- a story which most of the institutional news media has been slow to pick up on.

On the other hand, do not assume that every pro-life senator will automatically vote for the Brownback-Weldon-Stupak legislation. Some might be confused by claims by the bio-tech lobby that "therapeutic cloning" is necessary to advance medical research. It is important that they understand that a vote in favor of the Feinstein proposal is a vote in favor of HUMAN EMBRYO FARMS and a "clone-and-kill" policy.

If you obtain information on any senator's position (including information reported in the press), please forward it to NRLC at Legfederal@aol.com. Further information on the human cloning issue is available on the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org under "Federal Legislation: Killing Human Embryos."

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

Friends of the Earth
November 26, 2001

Contact: Mark Helm, 202-783-7400

The announcement yesterday that human embryos have been cloned by Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) should be deeply disturbing for anyone who cares for our planet and its people. Friends of the Earth (FoE), has opposed all human cloning because it violates two fundamental principles shared by environmentalists: the precautionary principle, and respect for nature.

We are further concerned that the pursuit of this unproven technology is being driven by entrepreneurial greed and scientific arrogance under the guise of alleviating human suffering. Dangling cures for a host of diseases, ACT -- and others who will surely follow in their wake -- seek to throw open a Pandora's Box of technologies that could easily do more harm than good.

In order to safeguard the environment and human life, FoE calls for the following:

• A ban on all human reproductive cloning and genetic germline modifications, including "designer babies"
• A moratorium on human therapeutic cloning until alternatives are explored
• Safeguards to prevent export and blackmarket distribution of cloned or genetically modified human embryos.

The scientists touting this technology and the bioethicists who rally behind it fail to see the slippery path on which they tread and the grotesque manipulation of nature that they are conducting. They have isolated themselves from the sensibilities of the American public.

For example, two years ago the same company that announced a cloned human embryo put a human nucleus in a cow egg and let it divide. Last year, they tried to clone an endangered species of ox (the Gaur) and it died. Even if it had survived, the creature would have been the genetically engineered product of more than one species and it would have distracted from the pressing need to protect endangered species habitat, rather than generate genetic hybrids as zoo specimens.

The precautionary principle is a cornerstone of environmentalism and it should be applied to the new human genetic technologies. It requires that we have some regard for the consequences of our actions before we carry them out. In this century alone, the list of unforeseen and unintended consequences of modern industrial civilization is enormous; so is the attendant economic and environmental damage. The unforeseen and devastating consequences of the use of CFCs, DDT, and PCBs illustrate the need for this underlying principle. Environmentalists embrace an ethic of respect for nature and strive to demonstrate the interdependence of humans and our natural world.

Proponents of cloning and inheritable modification, on the other hand, extol the virtues of "re-making Eden" -- of "improving" what nature has given us. For example, "designer babies" or the cloning of pets that don't cause allergies will lead us down a slippery slope toward the redesign of the rest of life. Indeed, if society allows the cloning of human beings today, inheritable genetic manipulation of humans and all other species cannot be far behind.