Joe Pitts: “Members of this body this past week have been told by outside groups that somatic cell nuclear transfer is not cloning.…”

“Members of this body this past week have been told by outside groups that somatic cell nuclear transfer is not cloning. That is just not true. SCNT is the same process that created Dolly the sheep. If SCNT does not create a clone, then Dolly was not a sheep. SCNT produces an embryo, whether the procedure is done to destroy the human embryo for research or to implant it to produce a child. The fact that creating it does not involve sperm is what makes it a clone. This is unquestioned by serious people. Bioethics commissions, President Clinton, and George W. Bush said that the product of SCNT is a cloned embryo. In a debate as emotional and important as this one, it is important to understand all the facts; and it is equally important to see through the word games espoused by some groups and Members of this body. SCNT creates a cloned human embryo. There is no way around it. And that is why this body should move quickly to stop human cloning before scientists start killing human clones like they killed all those sheep when they cloned Dolly. ____________________”