United States Senator Dianne Feinstein

"The Senate Should Ban Human Cloning,
But Permit Promising Medical Research to Continue"
April 30, 2002

Washington, DC - Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) introduced bipartisan legislation today to ban human reproductive cloning, but allow promising medical research that offers hope to millions of Americans. The following is a statement by Senator Feinstein:

"At the dawn of a new era in medicine, it would be unconscionable for Congress to prohibit medical research that offers hope to so many people with crippling and often incurable diseases. There is broad agreement across our society that reproductive cloning should be prohibited. But there is also wide-scale support to continue research that may yield cures for paralysis, cancer, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's and so many other illnesses.

Simply put, nuclear transplantation research has nothing to do with cloning humans. Rather, it has everything to do with saving lives and alleviating suffering. The legislation we are introducing today bans human reproductive cloning - that is, creating a whole-body, carbon copy of a human being. Such cloning is unsafe, immoral, and unacceptable.

Under the bill, anyone who even attempts human cloning will be subject to 10 years in jail and a minimum $1 million fine. However, the bill does not ban somatic cell nuclear transplantation. This is a technique that offers enormous potential for providing cures for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, and heart disease as well as conditions such as spinal cord injuries, liver damage, arthritis, and burns.

2. It is then injected into an unfertilized egg from which the nucleus has been removed; and

This "new" organ or tissue would have the same DNA as the sick person and thus can be implanted without rejection by the person's body. This could save the lives of the thousands of people every year waiting for an organ or tissue to be donated or who receive a transplant but suffer complications from powerful immuno-suppression drugs.

Today, almost 80,000 Americans are waiting for organ transplants, while hundreds of thousands more need tissue transplants. Nuclear transplantation research offers many other applications as well.

It could be used to produce human proteins such as blood clotting factors that aid in healing wounds. It could yield information on stem cell differentiation, providing valuable information about the mechanism of aging and the causes of cancer. It could even be used to find a cure for cancer by teaching us how to reprogram cells.

However, we must acknowledge that nuclear transplantation research - like all scientific and medical research involving human diseases and conditions - involves complex ethical issues. Currently, this research is largely unregulated in the private sector.

That is why this legislation would impose a number of ethical requirements on it, including informed consent, an ethics board review, and protections for the safety and privacy of research participants. Moreover, the bill provides that anyone engaging in unethical nuclear transplantation research would face up to a $250,000 fine.

Unfortunately, competing legislation goes far beyond such regulation. It would completely ban nuclear transplantation - criminalizing scientific research that offers the promise of saving the lives of millions and relieving the suffering of countless others. In fact, it would even make it a crime for a doctor to cure a patient if that cure was developed overseas from nuclear transplantation research.

I strongly oppose such legislation. I believe that passing such a sweeping ban would be a huge mistake. As is the case with many medical technologies, it is not cloning techniques that are the problem, but some of their potential applications. The scientific and medical evidence is overwhelming that nuclear transplantation offers the promise of curing many deadly diseases and debilitating conditions.

As Professor Irving Weissman, chair of the National Academies' panel on cloning, testified before a Judiciary Committee hearing I chaired, "[T]here are no scientific or medical reasons [for banning nuclear transplantation], and such a ban would certainly close avenues of promising scientific and medical research."

In fact, over 80 major organizations and associations have already come out in favor of our approach These include the American Medical Association, National Health Council, Parkinson's Action Network, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, which represents over 600,000 medical researchers around the country. Moreover, the leading blue-ribbon scientific and medical panels that have examined the cloning issue have also supported our approach.

The National Bioethics Advisory Commission, the National Academies' Panel on Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Cloning, and the California Advisory Committee on Human Cloning all concluded that we should ban human reproductive cloning, but not interfere with important areas of scientific research, including nuclear transplantation.

I have been very moved by the many sick people and their relatives that have contacted me and told me that my legislation offers them hope. One of the most compelling stories is that of Kris Gulden who testified at our hearing on the subject.

Ms. Gulden, a former veteran police officer, received several awards for her outstanding law enforcement work. She also maintained an active schedule outside the office, including winning the women's triathalon gold medal in August 1996 at the biannual International Police Olympics in Salt Lake City. Tragically, a car struck Ms. Gulden while she was training for the 1998 AIDS Ride, leaving her with a severe spinal cord injury.

That accident changed her life. Nine days before the accident, she was participating in a triathalon in Memphis. Nine days after the accident, she was left exhausted just trying to brush her teeth. I'll never forget her words: "In my dreams, I still walk. I run, I play basketball, and I wear the uniform of the Alexandria Police Department. When the sun rises each morning, it brings reality with it. I rise to the sight of a wheelchair, yet I rise with the hope that maybe this will be the morning that I can move my legs."

In the face of the enormous promise of nuclear transplantation research, it is difficult to see why anyone wants to dash the hopes of Kris Gulden and the millions of others facing debilitating and painful illnesses and ailments.

Forty Nobel Laureates have urged Congress to allow the continuation of nuclear transplantation research for those seeking new therapies for the most debilitating diseases known to man. This research offers hope to people like Kris Gulden and countless others. Congress should not shut the door on such hope and aspiration."