For many elected representatives, the call to action came with the announcement in Europe of the birth of a cloned human being. Legislators in the United States quickly introduced several bills in both Houses of Congress. These bills are outlined below.

President George Bush supports a complete ban on cloning using human embryos. On Wednesday, February 26, 2003, the White House issued a statement which said it was "unequivocally opposed to the cloning of human beings either for reproduction or for research." It also stated, "The moral and ethical issues posed by human cloning are profound and cannot be ignored in the quest for scientific discovery."

U.S. House of Representatives
H.R. 801 and H.R. 534 were introduced to the House within a short time of each other. Similar in content, both bills were designed to ban all forms of human cloning research. An earlier alternative bill that would have allowed cloning for research but not for creating babies was defeated in a 231-174 vote.

H.R. 534, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003, was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives on February 5, 2003. After discussion, it was passed on February 27 by a vote of 241-155. It now moves on to the Senate for consideration. This bill makes it unlawful for any person or entity to perform or participate in human cloning, or to ship or receive embryos produced by human cloning. The penalties are imprisonment of up to 10 years and fines of $1 million or more. It also mandates future study to assess new scientific developments that might warrant amending the Act.

The Human Cloning Prohibition Act would not affect cloning research using adult stem cells or animal embryos. Supporters of the Act feel that creating and destroying human embryos for research is immoral. "Anything other than a ban would license the most ghoulish and dangerous enterprise in human history," said Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC). Opponents feel that therapeutic cloning is too valuable to ban. "This bill, if enacted, will close the door to important research," said Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass).

U.S. Senate
S. 245 is the Senate version of H.R. 534. It was read in the Senate on January 29, 2003, and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

S. 303, the Human Cloning Ban and Stem Cell Research Protection Act of 2003, was read in the Senate on February 5, 2003, and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

It is widely believe that a complete ban on cloning research (S. 245) will not pass in the Senate because the Republican backers of the bill will not be able to obtain the 60 or more votes necessary for its passage. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass), along with other Democratic leaders, is seeking passage of S. 303, which he co-sponsored. "I'm confident that a majority of the Senate will reject these unwarranted restrictions on medical research, as it has many times in the past," stated Sen. Kennedy in a printed interview.

For more information on the specific legislation, go to http://thomas.loc.gov and type in the number of the bill you are interested in. You can read the entire text of the bill and see its current status.

Information for this article was taken from:
- CNN.com. House opens debate on cloning. 2/27/03.
- H. R. 534, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003.

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