From: Michael M. Butler (butler@comp-lib.org)
Date: Thu May 16 2002 - 09:31:28 MDT
Excerpted below. For the exegesis, hit the URL.
MMB
...
The great cloning debate
May 9th 2002 | WASHINGTON, DC
>>From The Economist print edition
A guide to a battlefield that crosses parties, faiths and ideologies
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1125284
SOMETIME this month the Senate will vote on the Human Cloning Prohibition Act.
The bill would make cloning human cells a federal crime, punishable by up to
ten years in jail and fines of $1m. It would ban not just baby cloning (that
is, transplanting a cloned embryo into a woman's womb), but therapeutic
cloning as well (embryo cloning in the hope of curing genetic diseases such as
diabetes).
Supporters of the bill, sponsored by Senators Sam Brownback and Mary Landrieu,
say the debate will be the first opportunity for Congress to regulate the hard
ethical dilemmas raised by biomedical advances. (Last year's narrower debate
over the related subject of stem-cell research ended in George Bush deciding
that it could get government money.) The House of Representatives passed a
version of the Senate cloning bill last July. Mr Bush has said he will sign
the ban if it passes.
Opponents view the bill as an attack on basic science. They back a rival
measure, sponsored by Senators Edward Kennedy and Arlen Specter, to ban baby
cloning but permit the therapeutic kind. This will be debated at the same
time.
Unsurprisingly, the debate has been dominated by the extremes. Francis
Fukuyama, a writer and critic of human cloning, complains that opposition to
the Senate ban comes from an unholy alliance of anything-goes libertarians and
left-wingers who want to perfect human nature. But a similar charge could be
levied against the banners, who include both the religious right and left-wing
Luddites. There are five basic arguments to ban it....
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