For immediate release: 
Friday, April 19, 2002

 For further information:
Douglas Johnson, Legislative Director, 202-626-8820 Legfederal@aol.com

WASHINGTON – The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) and its state affiliates have launched a new wave of radio ads, urging citizens to call their named U.S. senators in support of the Brownback-Landrieu bill (S. 1899) to ban the cloning of human embryos. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) has promised Senate action on the Brownback-Landrieu bill before a congressional recess that begins May 24.

The new ads will run in eight states: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and South Dakota. The broadcasts begin in most states on Friday, April 19, and will be up in all eight states by Monday, April 22.

Each ad takes the form of a conversation between a man and a woman about the issue of human cloning and human embryo farms, starting with a reference to President Bush’s April 10 speech urging the Senate to quickly pass the ban. [The speech is at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/04/print/20020410-4.html ]

The first voice in each ad notes that President Bush urged the Senate to pass the Brownback bill and adds, "He [the President] warned that unless this is done quickly, we’ll have human embryo farms." After a dialogue on the issue, the woman exclaims, "Can’t they see that it’s just not right to make human embryos and harvest them like crops?," or similar sentiments. A third voice concludes the ad with information on how to telephone the office of the senator(s).

Most of the ads also briefly critique counterproposals, being pushed by the biotech industry lobby, that would permit human "research cloning" -- that is, the mass cloning of human embryos for use in lethal experiments and as medical commodities – but make it a crime to implant any cloned human embryo in a womb. Pro-life groups regard such "clone and kill" bills (currently, S. 1758, S. 1893, and S. 2076) not as "compromise" proposals but as worse than no legislation at all, because they would establish an unprecedented federal mandate that an entire class of members of the species homo sapiens (all cloned human embryos) must die. Some of the ads refer to specific senators’ endorsements of such "clone and kill" legislation. For example, the South Dakota ad notes, "[Sen. Tim] Johnson has endorsed an awful bill that would allow the cloning of human embryos, and then send a woman to jail if she helps a single cloned embryo to survive."

The ads differ by state in other respects as well, depending on statements made by the state’s senator(s) or other state-specific information. For example, the Iowa ad highlights last week’s overwhelming approval of a total ban on the cloning of human embryos by the Iowa legislature, and contrasts this with Senator Tom Harkin’s role as a leading Senate opponent of the Brownback-Landrieu bill. Likewise, the South Dakota ad mentions recent passage of a resolution by the South Dakota legislature, with the support of 95% of state lawmakers, endorsing the Brownback bill and condemning so-called "therapeutic cloning."

Some of the ads touch on the future patenting and sale of cloned human embryos. For example, the Rhode Island ad notes that "the [biotech] industry is fighting the bill. They want to mass produce human embryos by cloning, and even get patents on specific human embryos, and then sell them for profit. They really intend to set up human embryo farms." (For more information on the patenting issue, see www.nrlc.org/Killing_Embryos/patentpuzzle030202.html )

Transcripts of all of the ads are posted on the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org/Killing_Embryos/Index.html. Audio mp3 files of each ad are also available there for listening or downloading. The website also includes abundant additional information on the Brownback-Landrieu bill and the competing "clone and kill" legislation advocated by the biotech industry.

For additional specific documentation on any of the statements made in any of the ads, contact the NRLC Federal Legislative Office at (202) 626-8820 or at Legfederal@aol.com. For information on the broad coalition of pro-life groups, environmental organizations, women’s health organizations, and other groups supporting the Brownback-Landrieu bill, see www.cloninginformation.org.