Dianne Feinstein: “Today Senators Kennedy, Boxer, Miller, Corzine, Durbin, Clinton, and I are introducing legislation to make the cloning…”

“Today Senators Kennedy, Boxer, Miller, Corzine, Durbin, Clinton, and I are introducing legislation to make the cloning of a human being a crime. Unlike other bills, our bill would not criminalize cloning that could provide treatments for diseases, known as therapeutic cloning. On November 25, scientists at Advanced Cell Technology, a Massachusetts biotechnology firm, announced that they had created the first human embryos ever produced by cloning. I believe that this announcement raises serious concerns and we are proposing a bill to address this development. The bill we introduce today would: 1. permanently ban human reproductive cloning, the cloning of a human being; and 2. allow therapeutic cloning, that is, allow the use of somatic cell nuclear transfer or other cloning technologies to create stem cells for treating diseases. I support a ban on the cloning of human beings because I believe it is scientifically unsafe, morally unacceptable, and ethically flawed. Our bill would allow cloning for therapeutic or treatment purposes. It would not allow cloning for reproductive purposes, for creating a human being. Specifically, it prohibits the implantation of the product of nuclear transplantation into a uterus.”