Joe Pitts: “the columnist Charles Krauthammer called legislation that we are going to consider today to permit cloning human embryos…”

“the columnist Charles Krauthammer called legislation that we are going to consider today to permit cloning human embryos a ``nightmare and an abomination.'' It truly is. Some of those who support this proposal are so eager to clone human beings that they have taken to twisting the truth to promote their arguments. The latest thing they are saying is that cloned embryos are not really embryos at all. They say that if you use body cells instead of sperm to fertilize an egg, that that really is not an embryo. Mr. Speaker, that is ridiculous. Take a look at this picture of Dolly the sheep. Everybody knows that Dolly is a clone. Dolly was made by fertilizing a sheep egg with a cell taken from the mammary gland of another sheep. It took 277 tries before they got a clone that worked. Now she is 5 years old. Those who argue that cloned human embryos are not really embryos might as well argue that Dolly is not a sheep. That is ridiculous. Cloning human beings is wrong. Eighty-eight percent of the American people do not want scientists to create human embryos for the purpose of experimentation, harvesting and destruction. We will be voting later today to ban all human cloning. Support the Weldon-Stupak bill.”