- Rep. Dick Armey (R.-Texas), House Majority Leader: Armey called ACT's
announcement "disturbing" and said that the news should "set off a four alarm
wake-up call in the U.S. Senate." He urged the Senate to join the House in
banning human cloning, calling it "amoral, scientifically suspect tinkering
with the miracle and sanctity of life" (Freedom
Works release, 11/26).
- Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.): "This leap in scientific research moves us one
step closer to a world in which there is an apparent disregard for both ...
morality and the sanctity of life," Buyer said. He added, "Science should, and
must, continue on a path of advancement, yet not at the price of this
country's morality and ethics" (Buyer
release, 11/28).
-
Rep. James Greenwood (R-Pa.): Greenwood, who sponsored a previous House
bill that would have banned reproductive cloning but allowed therapeutic
cloning, stated in a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed that although he
"completely oppose[s]" reproductive cloning, somatic cell nuclear transfer
"should not be banned" because it "holds great promise" for scientists looking
for cures for diseases (Greenwood,
Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/28).
- Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.): Gutknecht called ACT's announcement "very
disturbing." He said that the House has "emphatically" expressed opposition to
human cloning, adding that the Senate needs to "quit dragging [its] feet on
this very basic question" (Gutknecht
release, 11/27).
- Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.): Linder called cloning a "dangerous
experimentation with human life" and said that the United States "must not
stray from [its] moral foundations -- even in the name of progress" (Linder
release, 11/28).
- Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.): Myrick called for an "immediat[e]" ban on the
"horrific practice" of human cloning (Myrick
release, 11/28).
- Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ill.): Pence "condemned" human cloning, saying that
"[no] ethical case can be made for cloning a human being." Pence said that a
ban would send a message to the world that "[h]umanity will ... not be
mastered by science" (Pence
release, 11/26).
- Rep. Ronnie Shows (R-Miss.): Shows stated that human embryonic cloning is
not only "bad public policy" but also "frightening." He expressed his
agreement with the
National Right to Life Committee's Douglas Johnson that "these cloned
human embryos are human lives" that should not be "killed to provide
biological raw material" (Shows
release, 11/28).
-
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.): Shelby, the co-sponsor of a Senate
bill to ban all forms of human cloning, stated in a USA Today
op-ed that cloning efforts "mark a new and decisive step toward turning human
creation into a manufacturing process that undermines the value of human life
and portends unimaginable ethical choices" (Shelby,
USA Today, 11/28).
- Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.): "[B]uilding a life, whether you want to call
it a 'cellular life' or a 'human life' to serve as a discardable donor is not
moral science. ... The cloning of a human would dramatically alter society's
perception of what it means to be a human being," Stearns said (Stearns
release, 11/28).
- Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.): Stupak, a co-sponsor of the bill that passed
in the House banning all human cloning, said that the Senate needs to act
"immediately" to ban cloning. "The human race is not open to experimentation
at any level," Stupak said (Stupak
release, 11/28).
- Sens. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) and Mark Dayton (D-Minn.): Wellstone and
Dayton said that banning all human cloning would "close the door on medical
research" for many cures for injuries and diseases. The senators said,
however, that they support a ban on reproductive cloning (Hotakainen,
Minneapolis Star Tribune, 11/30).
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