December 7, 2001

Cloning Amendment Fails in Senate; Lott, Brownback Vow to Continue Fight

Senate Republicans Dec. 3 failed to force debate on a proposal calling for a six-month moratorium on human cloning for any purpose, including research. The proposal failed when the Senate voted 94 to 1 not to limit debate on an amendment introduced by Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss) to the railroad retirement bill (H.R. 10). Senator Lott's amendment paired the cloning issue with a controversial plan to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Both Senators Lott and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), principal architect of the moratorium proposal, indicated after the Senate vote that they would attempt to attach the cloning moratorium to other legislation coming before the Senate. Senator Brownback is the sponsor of legislation (S. 790) to invoke a permanent ban on human cloning. The House passed a companion bill (H.R. 2505) in July.

Sen. Brownback had agreed earlier this year during debate on the Labor-HHS appropriations bill to withhold his cloning proposal until next year when Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) promised he would allow the bill to be debated and voted by the Senate. Senators Lott and Brownback are pushing for a moratorium in response to the announcement last month that Advanced Cell Technology has cloned human embryos.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are moving ahead with two proposals to distinguish between reproductive and therapeutic cloning. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced a bill (S. 1758) Dec. 3 to prohibit human cloning, which the bill defines as "asexual reproduction by implanting or attempting to implant the product of nuclear transplantation into a uterus." The bill provides specific protection for areas of medical research that include "nuclear transplantation to produce human stem cells." Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), and Zell Miller (D-Ga.) are original cosponsors of the bill.

At a Dec. 4 hearing, Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) announced that he is working on legislation that would ban cloning for the purpose of creating babies but would allow therapeutic cloning to produce embryonic stem cells.

Information: Dave Moore, AAMC Office of Governmental Relations, 202-828-0525.