W. Todd Akin: “I, in earlier days in my life, used to go out to junkyards sometimes to find parts for my sports car, go out with some…”

“I, in earlier days in my life, used to go out to junkyards sometimes to find parts for my sports car, go out with some wrenches, and we would take off a transmission or an alternator or something like that. And of course, there is nothing wrong with finding spare parts in a junkyard. But what we have before us in this debate is the serious possibility that if we do not direct science properly, that we could end up in some sort of a brave new world which none of us want to find ourselves in, a world in which parts of human beings are like parts in a junkyard. And that may sound a little bit like a science fiction novel or something like that, but the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003 will ensure that human beings are not treated like old junk cars in some parking lot. Therapeutic cloning pledges unique cures for hundreds of illnesses; yet, this is an empty promise. It has never produced a single cure in animal models nor has it produced any cures in human clinical trials. In fact, James Thompson, the scientist who discovered embryonic stem cells, said in reference to therapeutic cloning, "The poor availability of human oocytes, the low efficiency of the nuclear transfer procedure and the long population-doubling time of human embryonic stem cells make it difficult to envision this becoming a routine clinical procedure." Opening the door to therapeutic cloning will only result in a slippery slope of unscrupulous science and unenforceable law.”