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For a fact sheet on human cloning and embryonic stem cell research, click here. For the scoreboard on embryonic stem cell research v. adult stem cell research, click here. Statement from Michael
Ciccocioppo, Is it because he knows that if the people of Pennsylvania knew what he is up to, they would find his actions indefensible? Right after the ever-forthright President Bush asked the UN to enact a worldwide ban on human cloning, Specter published a disingenuous attack on the Bush-endorsed bill to ban human cloning in the U.S. In his Orwellian newspaper commentary, Specter, in condescending tones, explained his imagined difference between what he calls "reproductive cloning" and what he calls "therapeutic cloning." He's against the former and for the latter, he says, claiming the two processes, which are actually one, have "nothing to do with" each other. The truth is that the only distinction between "reproductive" cloning and "therapeutic" cloning is what you do to the cloned person after the cloning process is complete. "Reproductive cloning" would allow the cloned human being to live, grow, and be a member of society, and what Specter calls "therapeutic cloning" would just make a lab rat of the cloned person, killing him or her in the early stages of life to use the body as raw materials for experiments. To say, "I strongly oppose" letting clones live, but strongly support cloning that kills, is indefensible. It's hard to believe a Senator would do such a thing. But next month, Specter intends to oppose Sen. Sam Brownback's bill that would ban human cloning outright. (That bill's position was supported by more than 80% of Americans in recent polls and already passed the House with bipartisan support.) Yet Specter is a co-sponsor of Sen. Tom Harkin's bill that would allow human cloning but implement a federal mandate that the clones not be allowed to be born and continue to live. Specter further claims that a clone-and-kill-for-spare- parts policy will cure various diseases. Even the scientists who want society's approval for doing lab experiments on unconsenting human beings do not make any such promises. Their hope of curing diseases through cloning is only that -- hope, based on conjecture. Specter should be ashamed of himself for toying with the emotions of constituents who suffer from diabetes, spinal cord injuries, or Parkinson's disease by pretending cloning will help them. He doesn't know if cloning will help anyone. The only thing he knows for sure is that every clone in the experiments he promotes will die. Then, as if he hadn't done enough damage with his misleading article already, Specter proceeded to mock the millions of Americans who want a ban on human cloning, equating them with people who fought for the belief that the earth was flat and wanted to deny women in labor access to anesthesia in the middle ages. This disrespect for intelligent, moral, thoughtful people of goodwill is unbecoming someone who is supposed to be representing and serving those people. I hope word gets out about Specter's deceptive words. And I hope Pennsylvanians respond by calling his office and giving him an earful. |