Final Report (all chapters)

D.C., since 2001, the Congress has attempted more than 40 times to pass legislation related to
cloning and stem cell research. 38 None of these initiatives has become law. A review of the
legislation proposed since 2001 shows that the proposed bills fall in two main categories. Many
legislative proposals simply aim at prohibiting any kind of cloning research, independently of its
purpose. In the second category, we find bills that explicitly ban and often criminalize cloning
for reproductive purposes, but legalize research cloning.
We believe that none of these bills represents an adequate response to current ethical
controversies. Broad legislative bans are too blunt a response in light of the need to make fine
distinctions between acceptable and unacceptable applications of new reproductive technologies
and medical research. On the other hand, distinguishing between reproductive and research
cloning is only the first step toward addressing ethical controversies, of which many more would
remain unresolved. To appreciate just how narrow the focus of legislative debates in the United
States has been, one only needs to compare the scope of U.S. legislative efforts with legislative
proposals in other OECD countries. As Table 16 and Table 17 in Appendix H demonstrate, most
European and Asian countries have found it necessary to provide legal guidance not only for
cloning research, but also for embryo research, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (and sex
selection), the creation of chimerical animals and hybrids, germ-line genetic engineering,
reproductive services, and the trade of human gametes. By contract, the United States is the only
country that has enacted little or no legislation in most of these areas.
5.2.2 Senate Bill 303
In this section, we examine in some detail Senate Bill 303, a bill that has been praised by
many as a reasonable legislative answer to the current legislative gridlock over cloning research,
but has been opposed in the Senate by pro-life legislators. S. 303 was passed by the House of
Representatives and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2003, where it has been
languishing ever since. Its official title is the “Human Cloning Ban and Stem Cell Research
Protection Act of 2003.” As the name suggests, it consists of two distinct parts, Title I, the
“Prohibition of Human Cloning,” and Title II, “Ethical Requirements for Nuclear
Transplantation Research.”
Title I is a straightforward ban on reproductive cloning. It instructs the Department of
Justice to adopt measures to detect possible violations, in collaborations with state and local
authorities. Penalties for performing or attempting to perform human reproductive cloning are
among the most severe in the world – imprisonment for up to ten years and a fine of up to a
million dollars. Section 102(a) instructs the Justice Department, among other things, to prepare
and submit a report to the Senate Judiciary Committee that describes the actions taken by the
Attorney General to enforce the ban on reproductive cloning.
Which measures the Justice Department would have taken to ensure compliance we will
never know. It could have required any individual or institution that plans to conduct research
38
See Appendix D for an overview.
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