[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14973]
[From the U.S. 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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