From: Barbara Lamar (altamiratexas@earthlink.net)
Date: Sun Apr 29 2001 - 12:01:06 MDT
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-extropians@extropy.org
> [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]On Behalf Of Robert J. Bradbury
> Now, as pointed out in the previous article I mentioned --
> http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel041601.shtml
> it appears they are attempting to regulate cloning under
> the "interstate commerce" powers granted to the Federal
> government by the constitution. So it is questionable
> whether the law would stand up to a court challenge.
You'd think so, wouldn't you? But the Supreme Court has been quite inventive
in the past. Most research institutes are funded with money coming from more
than one state, and although this might have only an indirect effect on
commerce, I don't think that would necessarily stop the court from bringing
it under the commerce clause. (I always think of the case where a farmer who
was feeding his own home-grown grain to his own hogs was said to fall under
the commerce clause because by using his own grain he deprived the market of
the dollars he *would* have spent if he'd had to buy the grain). It's true
that lately the recent mood has been to interpret the commerce clause a bit
more strictly and to move away from federal control of state matters. In any
event, a law prohibiting the interstate sale of products resulting from
human cloning research and the possession of such products with intent to
sell could certainly put an effective damper on research even if the
research were not banned outright.
Barbara
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