Senate committee clears bill to ban funds for human cloning

• By SARAH CHACKO
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 22, 2008 - Page: 8A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Legislation to ban the use of public funds for human cloning passed without opposition in a Senate committee Wednesday.

House Bill 370 now heads to the Senate floor.

State Rep. Cameron Henry, R-Jefferson and sponsor of House Bill 370, told the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare that the measure does not prohibit federal funding to study the embryonic stem cell lines approved by President Bush prior to 2001.

HB370 also would not affect LSU or Tulane University’s funding for adult stem cell research or the animal cloning research going on at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Henry said.

Proponents of House Bill 370 have argued that human life is destroyed as part of the stem cell research, which so far has yielded no breakthroughs on the disease-fighting front.

It already won House approval.

Dorinda Bordlee, vice president and senior counsel of the Bioethics Defense Fund in Metairie, said even Professor Ian Wilmut, who pioneered the cloning technique with the creation of the famous cloned sheep Dolly, decided to give up his license to clone humans because he found the methods using nonembryonic stem cells to be better.

“Whether you’re for abortion or against, whether you’re for cloning human embryos for research or against, we can all agree that our tax dollars should not go to the production of human embryos for their destruction and use in science experiments,” Bordlee said.

Dr. W. A. Krotoski, president of The Hippocratic Resource in Baton Rouge, said adult stem cell research, which is legal, already has yielded numerous clinically applicable therapeutic results.

The Hippocratic Resource is a statewide organization of doctors, nurses and other health professionals committed to promoting medical ethics.

“As a physician and medical scientist, I remain unconvinced that human cloning is anywhere near as promising as its proponents claim,” Krotoski said.

Gene Mills, executive director of the Louisiana Family Forum, said the bill would not prohibit research or completely restrict stem cell exploration. But the measure would ensure that no public funds would be involved in those specific areas, he said.

“We believe this body, the Louisiana Legislature, must decide where the ethical and moral lines will be drawn as it relates to the experimentation of human life and its protection,” Mills said.