Congress passes bill to ban all human cloning

The United States House of Representatives last week passed a bill to ban all forms of human cloning - therapeutic as well as reproductive. The bill would also prevent the importing of any cell-based treatments created abroad from cloned human embryos.

After six hours of debate, the first debate of its kind in the house, Congress voted 265 to 162 in favour of the Human Cloning Prohibition Bill 2001. Although support for the bill came predominantly from Republican congressmen, they were also joined by 63 Democrats and two independents. An amendment to the bill, which would have permitted creating cloned embryos for therapeutics fell by a vote of 251 to 176.

The bill's primary sponsor, Republican David Joseph Weldon, was jubilant. 'This sends a signal to the American people that the Congress is prepared to draw the line and ban human cloning.' President Bush also welcomed the vote, calling it a 'strong ethical statement'. But he still looks no closer to making a decision about federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, a decision he has promised by September.

The bill cannot become law until it is passed in the Senate, which is dominated by Democrats who are thought to be more supportive of cloning research. However, Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, distanced himself from human cloning. Whilst a firm supporter of embryonic stem cell research, Daschle is less willing to associate himself with therapeutic cloning, saying 'I'm very uncomfortable with even cloning for research purposes'. He predicts a difficult amendment debate on cloning, if Senators are faced with a stem cell bill in the autumn.