U.S. ANTI-CLONING LEGISLATION STALLED

February 25, 1998

WASHINGTON — The effort to enact a ban on human cloning appears to have stalled in the U.S. Senate because of a lack of common ground between two proposed 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 physicist Richard Seed announced in January that he wants to start a human cloning clinic.

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

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

A separate and greatly different Republican cloning bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, but no timetable for hearings has been decided, a committee 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 through somatic cell nuclear transfers, the technology employed by British doctors to create Dolly the cloned sheep.

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

But many scientists lobbied against Bond-Frist saying the bill would curtail potential 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 cloning ban one of his top 25 priorities this year. The House is considering legislation similar to Bond-Frist, sponsored by Rep. Vernon Ehlers, a Michigan Republican.

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

"Events have overtaken cloning at the moment. It is definitely not on the radar screen 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 roadblock in the Senate, Senate sources said.

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

Democrats led the effort to refer the cloning issue to committee for more extensive debate and hearings, saying hastily passed legislation could block important research.

Karpinksi said despite the obstacles, the "emotional" nature of the cloning issue and its potential appeal to voters left the door open for passing a law in 1998.