In August, 2004, a controversy broke out in North Dakota about whether Senator Byron Dorgan (D) has really supported legislation to "make human cloning illegal," as he says.  NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson wrote a memo that documents Senator Dorgan's actual record on the human cloning issue.   To read this memo -- which is the most up to date discussion of Sen. Dorgan and human cloning legislation -- click here.  (September 6, 2004)  
(PDF file -- requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader)

The material posted on this page below dates to 2002, a year in which Senator Dorgan introduced two bills dealing with human cloning.  The two bills were substantially different from each other.  The first bill, S. 2076, introduced on April 9, 2002, would have allowed both the cloning of human embryos for research AND implant-and-harvest cloning (fetus farming).  However, on June 10, 2002, Senator Dorgan introduced a revised version of S. 2076 that did not contain the qualifying phrase "for the purpose of creating a cloned human being" that appeared in the original version of the bill.  The revised version, called a "star print," had the same bill number.  The revised bill would have allowed any number of human embryos to be created by cloning, but made it unlawful to implant such an embryo into "a uterus or the functional equivalent of a uterus."  For further explanation, see the memo by NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson that is linked above.

Remarks by Deputy Director of Pro-life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on the original Dorgan bill (S. 2076)  (May 16, 2002)

To read or hear a 2002 radio ad about the original Dorgan bill, click HERE. (May 9, 2002)

Bill introduced by Senator Dorgan would allow implant-and-abort human cloning
(May 8, 2002)
 

On April 9, 2002, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) introduced  S. 2076, which he named the " Human Cloning Prohibition Act."

Senators Tim Johnson (D-SD) and Mark Dayton (D-Mn.) soon joined as cosponsors.

Senator Dorgan and his staff have described the bill to some journalists as a " common ground" measure that incorporates what both sides in the cloning debate agree on. Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman promoted the bill as a sensible consensus measure in early May.

The reality is far different. The title aside, Dorgan' s bill is even worse than the Specter-Feinstein bill (S. 2439) and the other  "clone and kill" bills pending in the Senate.

In an April 29 letter to Senator Tim Johnson, NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson noted that S. 2076, like other " clone and kill" bills, would permit human embryos to be cloned and killed for research. But in addition, the wording of S. 2076 also " would permit cloned human embryos to be implanted in uteruses (human or other), grown to various stages of development (even, for example, to the advanced stage of pregnancy at which partial-birth abortions are performed), and then aborted to provide developed organs, tissues, or cells for research or transplantation," he wrote.

Such practices would be permissible under S. 2076 because the bill bans implanting cloned human embryos in human or animal uteruses only if this is done " for the purpose of creating a cloned human being." A definition of the term " human being" is conspicuously absent from the bill. On April 19, Senator Johnson wrote, " I do not, however, believe that the fetus (regardless of term) ought to be considered by the law as a separate human being from the mother." If a " fetus" is not a " human being" (" regardless of term" ), then S. 2076 would allow a cloned human embryo to be implanted in a human or animal womb and grown for months -- even to the final stages of pregnancy -- before being killed to obtain tissues or organs.

As NRLC' s Douglas Johnson noted in the letter to Senator Johnson, " Nor is it farfetched to believe that such things will be done, if the law allows it. Already, researchers have implanted a cloned cow embryo, grown that clone to the fetal stage, and then killed the clone to obtain developed kidney tissue. Moreover, in a recent experiment that was widely reported in the press as the first real breakthrough in 'therapeutic cloning' in animals, the researchers found it necessary to develop a cloned mouse to the newborn stage before its stem cells were sufficiently developed to cure the original mouse' s immune system defect."

An independent analysis by attorneys at the International Center for Technology Assessment reached a similar conclusion regarding S. 2076. The attorneys wrote that S. 2076 " is the most permissive piece of human cloning legislation introduced in the Senate. . . .the legislation allows an implanted cloned embryo to develop inside a woman's uterus for an unspecified period of time. . . the legislation gives government approval and support to an industry in which human clones gestate for several months in surrogate mothers to be followed by voluntary abortion of such fetuses for use in research."