Aggregated News
Denise Grady
The New York Times
February 12, 2004
Human cloning - and stem cell medicine, the goal of the cloning experiment being reported today by scientists in South Korea - have long been the subject of intense political and religious debate in the United States.
Indeed, advocates for stem cell research say it is not surprising that the advance was made overseas, because opposition to such research is so strong in this country.
A year ago, the House of Representatives voted to outlaw all human-cloning experiments. The bill was intended to ban both reproductive cloning - the kind intended to make babies - and "therapeutic cloning," the type performed in South Korea to produce stem cells that might be used for treatment of disease.
Proponents of the bill called cloning experiments of either type ghoulish, immoral and dangerous, but others argued that it was immoral to prevent research that might ultimately help people with incurable ailments like Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and spinal cord injuries.
A version of the House bill was subsequently...