[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 162 (Wednesday, November 28, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H8552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  THE SLIPPERY SLOPE OF HUMAN CLONING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I come to the well of the House today to call 
my colleagues' attention to recent developments in biotechnology 
research.
  As I was preparing to return to Washington, D.C. on Sunday morning, I 
was shocked, along with the overwhelming majority of Members of this 
body, to learn that a company in Massachusetts was loudly touting its 
recent decision to clone a human being for medical research.
  Despite the overwhelming vote in this Chamber on the subject, this 
rogue company and perhaps others have rushed to get ahead of our 
deliberations, breaking a heretofore established barrier of scientific 
ethics. I fear, Mr. Speaker, that this action may be the beginning of 
the end for medical ethics in our country.
  No matter what one's position on the issue of human life or abortion 
or a woman's right to choose, 88 percent of the public today is opposed 
to the cloning of human beings. We should all be troubled by the fact 
that scientists are attempting to thwart the political will of the 
country and the consensus of the medical community in advancing this 
research ahead of legislation.
  When faced with a similar claim of the benefits of what was known as 
eugenics in his time, the great moralist G.K. Chesterton remarked, 
``Eugenicists have discovered how to combine the hardening of the heart 
with the softening of the head.''
  There is no doubt that we have entered a new area of the debate over 
this issue, Mr. Speaker. Rather than speaking hypothetically about 
using some human beings to serve the needs of others, for-profit 
entities are actively defending this as science on the evening news.
  This Faustian bargain is the same sort of dilemma that has faced 
humanity, and particularly civilized societies, for some time. We in 
the western tradition have consistently embraced the principle, and no 
matter how attractive the benefits, it is impermissible to experiment 
on the helpless. We must guard this important principle.
  It is hard for us to grapple with the moral implications of a human 
life that is only seconds from conception. We cannot look at a cloned 
embryo in the face to confront this moral chasm. It takes a 
particularly keen sense of moral seriousness to grasp the implications 
of these recent developments.
  One person who does understand this is my good friend and colleague, 
the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon), who authored the legislation, 
along with my friend and colleague, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Stupak), who I joined today at a press conference where we stepped in 
to say that the will of the people of the United States, informed by 
conscience, ought to lead American ethics in research, and not these 
amoral biotechnical firms.
  Tonight, Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor to urge immediate action to 
stop the slide towards reductionist thinking on medical technology and 
the research that makes it possible. Yes, we want to heal the sick and 
prevent crippling disease. Therapies to make life longer and better are 
affecting every family. Who would not want more time with their parents 
and fewer trips to the pediatrician?
  It is truly amazing what God has allowed our scientific community to 
reap in this area. However, it is clear from the debate that these 
events have triggered across the country that Americans understand the 
moral implications of the experimentation that I have described here 
this evening. Cloning human embryos is a step too far. I urge my 
colleagues to move quickly to place these practices where they belong: 
beyond the pale of the law.
  Ever since witnessing the disaster that was the eugenics movement, 
civilized societies have recognized that involuntary experimentation on 
human beings is utterly indefensible. Let us as elected leaders of the 
foremost civilized society in the world today reconfirm our commitment 
to this principle.
  Today, Mr. Speaker, the House Chaplain began our proceedings with a 
prayer in which he mentioned the fabled tower of Babel. This was a 
tower rising to the skies, the pride of its time, a testament to the 
human technology of the day, but it eventually destroyed its builders 
and their very civilization.
  I submit tonight that the creation of human life for research or for 
vanity is such a tower of Babel. It threatens to tear the fabric of our 
society, our law, and indeed, our very civilization, and it must be 
stopped.

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