U.S. House of Representatives: Committee on Energy and Commerce, RepublicansPrepared Statement of The Honorable Michael Bilirakis: June 20, 2001

Subcommittee on Health
June 20, 2001

The hearing will come to order. I want to thank our witnesses for their time and effort in joining us today for this important hearing. Today, the Subcommittee on Health will continue where the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Congressman Jim Greenwood, left off. We will examine two measures which in many ways reflect the discussions of that hearing: H.R. 1644, sponsored by Congressmen Weldon and Stupak, and H.R. 2172, sponsored by Congressmen Greenwood and Deutsch.

This is a difficult issue, and it involves many new and complex concepts. But we should all be clear about the controversies related to human cloning. The term "therapeutic cloning," which many people use to mean any type of cloning that is not intended to result in a pregnancy, is confusing. It really includes two distinct procedures, one of which is controversial, while the other is not.

The noncontroversial component of "therapeutic cloning" is the cloning of human tissue that does not give rise to an embryo. The controversial aspect involves the creation of a human embryo. This latter meaning is also the subject of both of the bills we will discuss today. H.R. 1644 seeks to ban the creation of these cloned human embryos. H.R. 2172 seeks to prevent those who clone human embryos from implanting them in a surrogate mother.

What are we to make of the discussion today? Some patient groups want cloned embryos to be created, because their tissue may prove to be valuable in biomedical research. Some companies would like to clone human embryos because it will lead to a cheaper way to manufacture tissue.

Writing in 1947, C.S. Lewis observed in "The Abolition of Man" that Man's conquest of Nature would be complete when he finally:

"has obtained full control over himself. Human nature will be the last part of Nature to surrender to Man. The battle will then be won. We shall have 'taken the thread of life out of the hand of Clotho' and be henceforth free to make our species whatever we wish it to be. The battle will indeed be won. But who, precisely, will have won it? For the power of Man to make himself what he pleases means, as we have seen, the power of some men to make other men what they please."

Human cloning rises to the most essential question of who we are and what we might become if we open this Pandora's Box. I look forward to the testimony of our witnesses, who will help us understand just what might be in that box.

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H.R. 1644, Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001, and H.R.____, Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001