ISSUES RAISED BY HUMAN CLONING RESEARCH HEARING ...

127be faced with the disastrous results from those crazies seeingmoney, fame and glory for their profit.I respectfully submit this testimony to the committee and hopethat the information contained in it helps it shape constructive, politicaland social policy for the new millennium.I remain cloningly yours, Randolfe H. Wicker.[The prepared statement of Randolfe H. Wicker follows:]PREPARED STATEMENT OF RANDOLFE H.WICKER, FOUNDER, CLONE RIGHTS UNITEDFRONT, DIRECTOR, HUMAN CLONING FOUNDATIONThank you for inviting me to testify today. This hearing is being held because everyoneknows that human cloning is going to happen. As Dr. Zavos points out: ‘‘TheGenie is out of the bottle’’.As a human cloning activist during the past four years, I have viewed with alarmthe growing public hysteria surrounding this issue. The general public is both highlyopinionated and totally misinformed regarding human cloning.Cloning technology is a scientific achievement as significant as the conquering ofsmallpox, although less important than the discovery of the printing press. Cloningtechnology has achieved monumental importance due to its central role in stem cellresearch.Despite all the hand-wringing and declarations against the cloning of humanbeings by biotech companies, stem cell research cannot be separated from humancloning. The same technology, inserting a cell into an enucleated egg, is central toboth.The only difference between the two is that, in stem cell research, a tiny embryono larger than the dot at the end of this sentence is killed through transformingit into a stem cell culture. In human cloning, the same embryo would be implantedinto a woman’s womb and allowed to develop into a wanted and loved child.The general public supports stem cell research because it promises to revolutionizemedicine. The same public opposes human cloning, which itself is simply amedical cure for the human disability called infertility.The FDA has issued invalid legally unenforceable politically popular feel-good regulationsforbidding human cloning in American fertility clinics. Mark Eibert willelaborate on this later.The Government that governs best governs least.The first and most central issue raised by human cloning involves each individualcitizen’s reproductive rights.The decision by individual citizens about having children and their manner of conceptionhas always been a decision made by a patient in consultation with her orhis doctor.Politicians in Washington and politicians in state capitols have no business decidingfor American citizens who can bear children and how they can have them.The second critical issue raised by human cloning involves each individual citizen’sright to religious belief and practice.I testified to the U S House of Representatives Committee on Commerce, Subcommitteeon Health and Environment, on Thursday, February 12, 1998. I wouldlike to quote a short part of that testimony before tackling the difficult situationcurrently facing us.I would also like to note that, on this issue, I am speaking for myself and notas an official representative of The Human Cloning Foundation.‘‘. . . Religiously based restrictions...have no place in the law. They violate religiousfreedom. Those who believe cloning offers a partial temporary immortalityhave the right to secure an extended life for their genotype...human cloning doeschange, at least slightly, the traditionally clear line between life and death.‘‘If, evenafter death, a later born identical twin can be born carrying the originator’s genotypeinto another life, doesn’t that somehow deny death its traditional totality?[An appropriate phrase might be, ‘‘ Right To Life equals Right to Clone.’’]‘‘Already, a Montreal-based group, the Raelians—with which I have no associationwhatsoever, I might say—are virtually preaching eternal or extended life throughcloning. They offer to clone you for $200,000 at their Bahamanian facility, which wehave found out doesn’t really exist.’’ (See page 111 of February 12, 1998, Testimonyto the Subcommittee.)I am submitting to this committee a copy of a press release and invitation sentto me on October 8, 2000 by Nadine Gary on behalf of CLONAID, ‘‘The First HumanCloning Company,’’ entitled ‘‘HUMAN CLONING WILL ALLOW GAY COUPLESVerDate 11-MAY-2000 07:46 May 24, 2001 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00131 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 71495.TXT HCOM2 PsN: HCOM2