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The US Congress is currently deciding whether or not cloning research
should be allowed to proceed in the USA. To understand the debate,
one must understand what "cloning" is. Cloning means the
asexual reproduction of an animal embryo in which the nucleus of an egg
cell is removed and replaced with the DNA of an adult cell, resulting in
an embryo whose stem cells are identical to the adult cell. Stem
cells, of course, are the cells that can develop into any type of cell in
the body. Two types of cloning are being discussed, "reproductive" cloning and "therapeutic" cloning. Reproductive cloning means that the resulting embryo is implanted in the uterus of the adult female for further development into a complete individual. Therapeutic cloning means that the embryo cell is only allowed to reproduce itself for a certain period of time and then it is killed and its stem cells "harvested" for use in treating certain diseases. If you believe the media, therapeutic cloning will eventually lead to a cure for all diseases from Alzeimer's to athlete's foot. Sounds wonderful, right? But, it is not that simple. Dr. Ian Wilmut (who cloned Dolly the sheep) has said that the rate of embryo failure is high as is the death rate of newborn animals and that even surviving embryos sometimes suffer severe abnormalities, which may result from the artificial altering of the proteins surrounding the DNA during the cloning process. Bishop Robert Brom of San Diego has said that three faulty premises have been used to justify human cloning: (1) that the early embryo is not a human person (2) that human life can be destroyed as long as there is a resulting benefit to mankind and (3)that the destruction of human life is the only way that the desired results can be achieved. He goes on to say that "human cloning, whether for stems cells, for body parts, or for manufacturing new people, is to be condemned unequivocally". The Congress is currently considering three bills. We urge your support for S.1899 which would ban human cloning period! However, bills S.1893 and S.1758 (Feinstein) would appear to ban cloning but actually ban only reproductive cloning while permitting therapeutic cloning and the destruction of human embryos.
More information on cloning can be found at the US Conference of Catholic |