Max Baucus: “I rise today to discuss the Lott amendment to the railroad retirement bill. In addition to other provisions, this…”

“I rise today to discuss the Lott amendment to the railroad retirement bill. In addition to other provisions, this amendment would enact a moratorium on a scientific process which holds the potential to save millions of human lives. I cannot support such a provision. The final chapter of the Lott amendment deals with an issue that cuts to the core of our moral and ethical beliefs: human cloning. I share the deep concerns that my colleagues and millions of Americans have with the prospect of cloning human beings. These concerns were born in 1997, when scientists in Great Britain announced that they had successfully cloned a sheep. They were stoked again last week, when a biotechnology company in Massachusetts announced that it had taken the first steps towards producing human embryos through cloning. Let me be perfectly clear on this issue. I am adamantly opposed to any scientific project aimed at creating a clone of a human being. The implications of human reproductive cloning are morally repugnant. I do not know of a single respected scientist, ethicist, or religious leader who disagrees with me on this point. The Lott amendment would impose a 6-month moratorium on this type of reproductive cloning, and I am fully supportive of this effort. Unfortunately, the Lott amendment would also place a moratorium on a scientific procedure called somatic cell nuclear transfer.”