U.S. ANTI-CLONING LEGISLATION STALLED

February 25, 1998

WASHINGTON — The effort to enact a ban on human cloning appears to havestalled in the U.S. Senate because of a lack of common ground between twoproposed bills, even though House Republicans have made it a priority,congressional sources said early this week.

President Clinton urged Congress to pass such a ban after Chicago physicistRichard Seed announced in January that he wants to start a human cloningclinic.

"It's going to be tough. There are fewer than 80 days left (in the legislativesession), and we haven't had a hearing and we have no consensus," said JoeKarpinski, communications director for the Senate Labor and Human ResourcesCommittee.

Karpinski said the labor panel will likely hold a hearing in March to consider aban sponsored by Democrats Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California andMassachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy.

A separate and greatly different Republican cloning bill was referred to theSenate Judiciary Committee, but no timetable for hearings has been decided, acommittee spokeswoman said. Republican legislation was spearheaded by Sen.Bill Frist of Tennessee and Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri.

Both Democratic and Republican bills specifically ban human cloning throughsomatic cell nuclear transfers, the technology employed by British doctors tocreate Dolly the cloned sheep.

The Bond-Frist bill also outlawed research on cloned human embryos, sayingdestruction of such embryos during the research process would be unethicaland a waste of potential life.

But many scientists lobbied against Bond-Frist saying the bill would curtailpotential future stem cell research for diseases like cancer, diabetes,Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Republican of Texas, had made a cloningban one of his top 25 priorities this year. The House is considering legislationsimilar to Bond-Frist, sponsored by Rep. Vernon Ehlers, a Michigan Republican.

But Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott on Monday did not include cloning in hisprojected agenda for the next five weeks before the Easter recess starting onApril 3.

"Events have overtaken cloning at the moment. It is definitely not on the radarscreen between now and Easter," said Susan Irby, spokeswoman for Lott,Mississippi Republican.

Even if the House approves a ban, the bill could run into ascheduling roadblockin the Senate, Senate sources said.

Irby said the "window of opportunity" for speedy action on cloning passedwhen Lott's attempt to push the Bond-Frist legislation to a Senate floordebate failed in a Feb. 11 procedural vote.

Democrats led the effort to refer the cloning issue to committee for moreextensive debate and hearings, saying hastily passed legislation could blockimportant research.

Karpinksi said despite the obstacles, the "emotional" nature of the cloningissue and its potential appeal to voters left the door open for passing a law in1998.