Pro-lifers Battle to Pass Effective Bans on Human Cloning

By Dave Andrusko

First, the very good news. In the space of three days, two states gave final approval to bills to ban the creation of human embryos by cloning.

On March 24, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) signed a complete ban on human cloning into law. The Arkansas bill passed the state House 88-5 and the state Senate 34-0. The House rejected an amendment to permit human cloning for research.

Just two days later North Dakota gave final approval to a bill patterned after the Brownback-Landrieu bill that is currently under consideration in the U.S. Senate.

The North Dakota state senate passed the ban 46-0, the House 90-1. Governor John Hoeven (R) signed the bill into law April 7.

But as explained by Richard Doerflinger in his story on page 34, there are many cloning bills in the state legislatures, some of which are so radical proponents have had to sneak them in under the radar.

NRLC State Legislative Director Mary Spaulding Balch applauded the complete cloning bans as "very significant first steps, the kind that we hope will send a clear message to the United States Senate." At the same time Balch noted that cloning proponents are fiendishly clever in hiding what they are actually proposing.

In New Jersey and New York, extremist pro-cloning measures were advertised as "bans." New Jersey's bill was headed for easy passage until the real agenda was exposed.

The New Jersey cloning bill purported to prohibit the cloning of a human being. However, the cloning of a human being is defined to mean "the replication through the egg, embryo, fetal and new born stages into a new human individual."

Under this definition, a researcher wouldn't be guilty of "cloning a human being" unless he brought the cloned embryo through the fetal and newborn stages to form "a new human individual." In other words, you could produce a cloned fetus or a cloned newborn infant whose stem cells - - or organs - - could be harvested. The law is violated only if the child was allowed to live beyond the "new born" stage.

Likewise, the New York bill prohibits "reproductive cloning," but only if the purpose of gestation is a subsequent birth. Thus, this would allow researchers to develop cloned children until birth. They would be in violation of the law only if the child were allowed to live past "birth."

Balch said she read both proposed laws over and over and over.

"The only conclusion I could reach is that they have taken absolutely Orwellian liberties with ordinary language," she said.

"These people will hide all of their 'Brave New World' experimentation under the cover of supposedly producing 'helpful therapies' to 'cure diseases,'" she said. Because of the blatant dishonesty at work, pro-lifers must be on the lookout at all times, Balch warned.

"Nothing could better illustrate the importance of passing the Brownback-Landrieu bill," she said.