News Brief: Bush asks Senate for total ban on cloning
President Bush asked the Senate on April 9 to pass a bill by Sens. Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) that would completely ban cloning of human embryos for research, saying science must not rush ahead "without an ethical compass."
A competing measure, sponsored by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), would outlaw reproductive cloning, but permit research into deadly diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
"It would be a mistake for the U.S. Senate to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber," Bush said.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), however, urged lawmakers to heed a call from 40 Nobel laureates who support research cloning, and he said it is possible to bar ethically repugnant uses of cloned tissue without blocking the research.