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Senator Bill Frist on Senate Floor Today: "No
Justification" for Allowing Human Cloning...
Senator Bill Frist, M.D., today on the Senate floor made the following
remarks:
"Until now, the overall human cloning debate has been presented almost
as an absolute choice between, on the one hand, medical science and the
hope for cures and, on the other, ethical restraint.
This is an oversimplification that does not do justice to the clinical,
scientific, philosophical, moral, ethical, and spiritual complexities
underlying this discussion. I am glad to see that a number of my
colleagues and people around the country have not locked into this false
choice, but rather have stayed back to examine these issues carefully and
deliberately.
After carefully considering all of the evidence brought forward in
Congressional hearings and on the floor in support of human embryo
research cloning experimentation, after considering the medical progress
being made and that will be made through stem cell research, and after
considering the overwhelming ethical concerns about human embryo cloning
experimentation, I conclude that a comprehensive ban on all human cloning
is the right policy at this time. I intend to support legislation
consistent with this policy, and I will encourage my colleagues to do so
as well....
At this point in the evolution of this new science,
I believe there is no justification for the purposeful creation and
destruction of human embryos in order to experiment with them,
especially when the promise and success of stem cell research does not --
does not -- depend on the experimental research cloning technique. As my
colleagues know, I am a strong supporter of stem cell research --
including embryonic stem cell research - as long as that stem cell
research is conducted within an ethical and moral framework.
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