[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12910]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               SHAME ON CONGRESS IF WE DO NOT BAN 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, Edmund Burke once said: ``All that is 
necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.'' I 
might change that to read: ``All that is necessary for human cloning to 
begin in America is for Congress to do nothing.''
  When Korean scientists announced last month they had cloned 18 sick 
people and killed their clones to get their stem cells, some thought 
that would provide the motivation for the Congress to ban human 
cloning. They were wrong.
  The history of cloning is replete with defects, deformities, and 
death. It took 277 tries to clone Dolly the sheep. That is 276 dead and 
deformed sheep. And yet Congress does nothing to stop human cloning 
from happening in America. The House has done very little to force the 
Senate to act, and the House has yet to take up a bill this year.
  Human cloning is wrong and dangerous, no matter what cause it serves. 
Yet Congress and its leaders refuse to act, content to wait for a 
politically opportune time for a vote. But scientists are not operating 
on our electoral timetable. While we wait, cloning is coming down the 
pike, and it will happen here sooner than we know if we do not act.
  Those who would delay and do nothing will bring shame on Congress and 
on this body if we do not stop it.

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