to try and clone humans. The House Majority leader Dick Armey submitted a statement to the House Commerce Committee in support of a permanent ban on human cloning. "Cloning humans is wrong. It should be banned permanently, without loopholes, throughout the United States." He continues, "the international destruction of living human embryos is unethical and unacceptable. If an embryo is dividing and developing, it is a member of the human family and deserves our respect. And destroying it is repugnant to the American public" (Armey). The United States lags behind many other nations that have already placed bans on human cloning. Nineteen European nations have signed an agreement to prohibit the genetic replication of humans, some of these nations include: Britain, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Spain. Bills were introduced to Congress in 1997 that would prohibit cloning humans and outlaw federal funding for research in human cloning, but several scientists have urged Congress to delay action until the commission makes its recommendations. Clinton established the National Bioethics Advisory Commission in 1995. It's chaired by Princeton University President Harold Shapiro, and includes experts from science, law, philosophy, theology and industry. Two years after the Commission was created, they were faced with intense public debate to address the issues of human cloning. Despite the arguments from scientists who urged the commission not to rush judgment with bans that could prevent human cloning and research, the commission approved The Human Cloning Research Prohibition Act. This bill prohibits federal funds from being used for research that includes the use of a human somatic cell nuclear transfer technology to produce an embryo; in other words, it bans federal funding of human cloning. "Their proposal would make it a crime to create human embryos by swapping DNA in a process called somatic cell transfer. Violators would be s...
