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2001
PRESS RELEASES AND
POSITION STATEMENTS

From the Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report - November 30, 2001:

  • Ariff Bongso, director of the IVF program at the National University Hospital in Singapore: The Straits Times reported yesterday that Bongso, an expert on stem cell technology, "condemn[ed]" ACT's cloning of a human embryo, stating that the cloned embryos are "unnecessary" since the stem cell lines currently growing in laboratories worldwide are sufficient to provide enough stem cells for researchers. Singapore's Bioethics Advisory Committee recently put forth provisional guidelines banning reproductive cloning, but the committee's position on therapeutic cloning for the purpose of stem cell harvest is not clear (Soh, Straits Times, 11/29).
  • Concerned Women for America: In a press release, CWA President Sandy Rios called on the Senate to "take up the ban on human cloning" as the practice shows "utter disregard" for human life. The release states that "ethical research" is being conducted that does not require the cloning of human embryos "as raw material for experimentation" (Concerned Women for America release, 11/26).
  • Knights of Columbus: The chief executive of the Knights of Columbus called ACT's announcement "chilling" and called for a "comprehensive ban on human cloning" to be passed in the Senate. "Human cloning ... creates a whole new class of human beings whose sole purpose is to be the means for others' ends," Supreme Knight Carl Anderson stated in the press release (Knights of Columbus release, 11/26).
  • National Pro-Life Religious Council: In a press release issued Monday, the NPRC urged Dr. Michael West of ACT to "cease and desist" all human cloning activity and to meet with the group to discuss "the grave moral and ethical consequences of cloning." The release likened cloning to "play[ing] God" by "manufacturing human beings" and asked religious groups and "pro-life advocacy groups" to express their support to their senators for the Weldon-Stupak bill banning cloning and the destruction of human embryos (National Pro-Life Religious Council release, 11/26).
  • Russian Orthodox Church: Reuters/Contra Costa Times reported Monday that the Russian Orthodox Church "sharply condemned" both therapeutic and reproductive cloning, likening both practices to "murder." Official representative of the Moscow Patriarchate Father Antony Ilyin said the church would "do its best to promote legislation to ban cloning if the issue was raised in Russia" (Reuters/Contra Costa Times, 11/26).
  • United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: The president of the USCCB, Wilton Gregory, stated in a press release on Tuesday that the human cloning process "turns human reproduction into a manufacturing process." Urging the Senate to join the House in voting to ban human cloning, Bishop Gregory emphasized his belief that human cloning is an "attack on human dignity" (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops release, 11/27).
  • The Vatican and Pope John Paul II: The Vatican, which teaches that life begins at conception, issued a statement Monday expressing "unequivocal condemnation" of human embryo cloning (Reuters/Contra Costa Times, 11/26). Two days later, the pope criticized "scientific experiments that threaten the dignity of a human life" at his weekly general audience on Wednesday (AP/Nando Times, 11/28). Speaking to a group of doctors, the pope said that "true humanism can never permit methods and experiments that constitute threats against life that are programmed in a scientific and systematic manner" (Reuters/Contra Costa Times, 11/28).

Courtesy of Kaisernetwork.org
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=8303

(2003) (2002)