[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 91 (Thursday, June 7, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H6114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
A LOVE FOR LIFE
(Mrs. BLACKBURN asked and was given permission to address the House
for 1 minute.)
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, sales and marketing is my career field,
and I know a little bit about the branding of products and the value
that is there, and sometimes the name of the product or the idea can
make or break the success of the product. Marketing is not always about
the product. Sometimes it is about selling a slogan.
Yesterday we debated the Human Cloning Prohibition Act, which sounds
good, right? No one wants human cloning. But what this bill does is
just a very clever marketing ploy that sounds good, but leaves open
Pandora's box to a world of dangerous interpretation.
Let's make it clear: All this ban does is to prohibit a clone from
living inside a mother's womb. It doesn't ban destroying clones from
experimentation, just for human life. So that is good.
But how would this House leadership react when a woman breaks a law
and decides to have a cloned embryo inserted into her womb? Would they
force her to abort the clone inside of her?
Columnist Charles Krauthammer, a prominent supporter of embryonic
stem cell research, says, ``This practice sanctions the most ghoulish
and dangerous enterprise in modern scientific history, the creation of
cloned human life for the sole purpose of destroying them in the name
of science.''
Mr. Speaker, life is a gift, not a science experiment. Let us have
the decency in this Chamber to treat it as such. I strongly opposed the
bill and urge all those that believe in the beauty of life to do the
same.
Today, we debate embryonic stem cell research. Republicans are often
categorized as opposing stem cell research. The truth is that Federal
funding for stem cell research has increased by 60 percent since 2004
and was nonexistent before 2001. I support ethical scientific research
when it does not depend on the destruction of life and I urge my
colleagues to do the same.
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