http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/081/nation/Coalition_urges_a_ban_on_all_human_cloning+.shtml Coalition urges a ban on all human cloning By Mary Leonard, Globe Staff, 3/22/2002 WASHINGTON - Congress is facing mounting calls from some unexpected quarters to halt medical research involving human cloning. Since the US House approved a ban on both reproductive and therapeutic cloning last summer, the dynamic in the nation's capital has changed from one that pitted religious conservatives and antiabortion groups against scientists, biotechnology firms, and patient advocates. Now some environmentalists, feminists, and other activists are joining social conservatives in calling on lawmakers to put the laboratory work on hold. A broad coalition of biologists, ethicists, public-health advocates, abortion proponents, and human-rights activists signed a letter to leaders of the US Senate this week, urging a total ban on cloning to make babies and an indefinite moratorium on the creation of cloned embryos for use in medical research. ''Human cloning could be a gateway to a frightening new kind of eugenics, where discrimination and inequality are permanently written into our genetic code,'' said Marcy Darnovsky, a spokeswoman for the Center for Genetics and Society, a group based in Oakland, Calif., that organized the 100 signers and produced the letter. In the Senate, lobbying is intense on the cloning issue. Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota, has indicated that he will schedule a debate on cloning legislation in April or May. One bill - sponsored by Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas - would ban and criminalize all human cloning. Senators Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, have introduced a separate measure banning reproductive cloning but allowing biomedical research with cloned embryos. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Mar 22 2002 - 23:28:46 PST