 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
H.R. 1644, Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001, and H.R.____, Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001
Subcommittee on Health
Prepared Statement of The Honorable Billy Tauzin
Let me thank the Subcommittee Chairman, Congressman Mike Bilirakis, for holding this legislative hearing today on human cloning. I would also like to thank our witnesses who have taken time from their busy schedules to be here with us. The Committee last examined this subject on March 28 in a hearing conducted by the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, chaired by the sponsor of one of the bills we will examine today, Jim Greenwood. Since that hearing, two bills have been referred to the Committee to address the problems of cloning: H.R. 1644, the Weldon-Stupak bill, and H.R. 2172, the Greenwood-Deutsch bill. The March 28 hearing clarified for the Committee that there are indeed people seeking out scientists to create cloned human embryos from their own DNA, and are actively recruiting surrogate mothers to receive these embryos for implantation. We do not know how much time we have until the first cloned human embryo is created and implanted. We heard testimony on March 28 from Thomas Okarma of the Geron ["Jair-on"] Corporation, who has returned to testify today in support of H.R. 2172. Geron Corporation plans to accomplish the first half of the cloning process -- that is creating cloned human embryos -- but not the second -- implanting those embryos into a surrogate mother. I think we all agree that it would be a disaster to allow the implantation of cloned human embryos; we know from the experience of Dolly the sheep that there were some 270 prior attempts before there was a successful birth, the other attempts having resulted in early and grotesque deaths. None of us want that scenario repeated when it comes to human life. Even if we were to pass a law against the implantation of cloned human embryos, however, there remain some extremely vexing questions which we will address today. For instance, should we permit scientists to intentionally create human embryos - for whatever reason - knowing that those embryos will be destroyed? One of our witnesses today, Mr. Leon Kass, has written that doing so would be taking another step toward [quote] "making man himself simply another one of the man-made things." [end quote] How do we balance the urgent need for medical research across the broad spectrum of human affliction with our regard for the sanctity of human life? Are there matters of scientific inquiry where experiments should not be done in a civilized society? These are not easy questions. But today we will have witnesses before the Committee who can try to help us answer them. I thank the Chair and yield back.
|
|||||||||||
|
