[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 184 (Tuesday, December 4, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H14132-H14133]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BAN HUMAN CLONING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Madam Speaker, earlier today in this body we 
observed a minute of silence to honor the great life of Henry Hyde, our 
distinguished former colleague from Illinois. Henry Hyde clearly 
established himself in America as one of the great defenders of the 
sanctity of human life. He was eloquent on a host of issues in his 
outstanding rhetorical skills, but perhaps none was he more able and 
capable than in defending the dignity and sanctity of human life. And 
this body has been engaged in a tremendous debate involving the 
sanctity of human life as to whether or not for years now the Federal 
Government should fund the experimental research called human embryonic 
stem cell research, which involves creating human embryos for the 
purpose of killing them.
  President Bush, in what I believe to be one of the finest moments of 
his Presidency, decided to let the research go forward at the NIH, but 
denied funding to any more research which involved killing human 
embryos which had been occurring prior to the beginning of his term. 
This body has been engaged in a tremendous debate for years now as to 
whether or not the Bush policy should be overturned.

[[Page H14133]]

  And the defenders of overturning the Bush policy have contended for 
years and years and years now, number one, that there was great 
potential from human embryonic stem cell research, which is something I 
and others have questioned for years. Adult stem cell research and cord 
blood stem cell research have been showing great potential and clinical 
utility cures. Embryonic stem cells form tumors. They have never been 
shown to be safe or useable.
  But nonetheless, many people felt, myself included, that the science 
would outstrip this debate; and recently, I was very pleased to see the 
publication in two publications, Cell and Science, from two different 
research labs, one here in the United States involving Dr. Jamie 
Thompson, the researcher who originally was credited with discovering 
human embryonic stem cells. I would disagree, he didn't really discover 
them; we always knew they were there. He was just the first one to 
isolate them. The other is a research lab in Japan, I believe, and they 
have shown that you can create human embryonic stem cells from skin 
cells.
  Why is this so important? Why is this so significant? Well, for years 
in this body, in this Congress, we have been trying to pass a bill to 
ban human cloning. Everybody agrees human cloning is bad, but there 
have been people in this body and in the other body contending that we 
only want to ban attempts to create a baby; we shouldn't ban the 
creation of human clones in the lab because embryonic stem cells can 
never be used in therapy. I could never be treated for a disease from 
some other embryo because my tissues would reject it; but through 
embryonic cloning, we could do something called therapeutic cloning.
  Now, I have contended that was a science fix in that it had never 
been done in a research setting involving animals; and, furthermore, 
that it was not necessary. Now, this research shows you could scrape my 
skin and create embryonic stem cells from that skin scraping that would 
be genetically identical to me and could be used in therapies.
  So why is this important? Number one, I think President Bush has been 
vindicated. We shouldn't be funding this research. It is ethically 
questionable research, and it is unnecessary.
  Number two, it is now time for the Congress of the United States to 
put on the desk of President Bush a bill to ban all forms of human 
cloning because it is just not necessary.
  I started out talking about Henry Hyde and the sanctity of human 
life. Even if you don't believe in the sanctity of human life, one 
thing is absolutely certain: to create embryonic stem cells in the old 
way you needed human eggs. Where were we ever going to get all of these 
human eggs from? You have to get them from women, a very ethically and 
morally questionable thing for us to be doing, to ask women to donate 
through a painful, difficult surgical procedure, to donate their eggs 
for a form of research that has never been validated in the lab, in 
animal models as being viable in clinical therapeutics.
  So you don't have to invoke the sanctity of human life, but I must 
say I personally believe in the sanctity of human life. I believe Henry 
Hyde was right when he spoke over and over again on the importance of 
this. And it is now time for the Congress of the United States to act, 
put a bill on the President's desk to ban human cloning. The science is 
finally with us now.

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