Jim Sensenbrenner: “This issue is not about what the other side called a group of cells or insoulment or a leap of faith; it is about human…”

“This issue is not about what the other side called a group of cells or insoulment or a leap of faith; it is about human life at its very beginning. This amendment is not a cloning ban. It has a 10-year moratorium in it; but, in fact, for the first time this amendment would specifically make cloning legal, and it would require that human clones be killed after they are made, which is even more unethical. Now, some have suggested that cloned embryos are not really embryos at all. That is ridiculous. We might as well say that Dolly, who began as a cloned sheep embryo, is not really a sheep, even though now she is 5 years old. Even President Clinton's Bioethics Advisory Commission was clear. The commission began its discussion fully recognizing that any effort in humans to transfer somatic cell nucleus into an enucleated egg, in other words, cloning, involves the creation of an embryo. Eighty-eight percent of the American people want cloning banned, not merely because they believe it is bad science, but because they think it is morally wrong. Let us stop playing games with words. Reject the Greenwood amendment. Support Weldon-Stupak.”