[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 85 (Thursday, June 23, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H4990]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SCNT EQUALS CLONING
(Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, Members of this body this past week have been
told by outside groups that somatic cell nuclear transfer is not
cloning. That is just not true. SCNT is the same process that created
Dolly the sheep. If SCNT does not create a clone, then Dolly was not a
sheep.
SCNT produces an embryo, whether the procedure is done to destroy the
human embryo for research or to implant it to produce a child. The fact
that creating it does not involve sperm is what makes it a clone. This
is unquestioned by serious people. Bioethics commissions, President
Clinton, and George W. Bush said that the product of SCNT is a cloned
embryo.
In a debate as emotional and important as this one, it is important
to understand all the facts; and it is equally important to see through
the word games espoused by some groups and Members of this body.
SCNT creates a cloned human embryo. There is no way around it. And
that is why this body should move quickly to stop human cloning before
scientists start killing human clones like they killed all those sheep
when they cloned Dolly.
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