The first bill to ban human reproductive cloning has been introduced to both houses of the United States Congress. The Human Cloning Prohibition Act 2001, if approved, would make it a federal crime to clone a human or to import a human clone from anywhere outside the US. Anyone who breaks the law would be subject to ten years in prison or a one million dollar fine. Five US states have already banned human cloning.
There is no guarantee that the bill will be put to the vote, but the Republican Congressman who have brought the legislation believe that they must start a political fight against cloning, which they believe is 'morally indefensible and medically unsound'. They say that they need to prevent 'a manufacturing process in which children are made in laboratories'.
Officials from the White House have indicated that if the bill were passed by Congress, President George W Bush would also sign it. But Dr Panos Zavos, who has said there could be a human clone baby within two years, says that Congress should be less concerned with banning the technology and more concerned with ensuring it is properly developed so cloning can be made safer.
In response, Congressman Dave Weldon says that the experiences from cloning experiments in sheep show that cloning can give rise to a number of birth defects and other physical problems. He said that the concept of cloning humans is ethically flawed, 'lambs can be put down, but the same cannot be done to damaged human children'. He also thinks that the real question that should be asked is 'who wants to be a clone?', that issues of identity should be considered fully when the bill is being debated.
Sources and References
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US debates human cloning ban
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Bill would ban human cloning
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