Dorgan-Johnson Bill Would Allow Implant-and-Abort Cloning.(Byron L. Dorgan and Timothy P. Johnson)(Brief Article)

On April 9, 2002, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) introduced S. 2076, which he named the ?Human Cloning Prohibition Act.?

Senators Tim Johnson (D-SD) and Mark Dayton (D-Mn.) soon joined as cosponsors.

Senator Dorgan and his staff have described the bill to some journalists as a ?common ground? measure that incorporates what both sides in the cloning debate agree on. Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman promoted the bill as a sensible consensus measure in early May.

The reality is far different. The title aside, Dorgan?s bill is even worse than the Specter-Feinstein bill (S. 2439) and the other ?clone and kill? bills pending in the Senate [see main story, page 1].

In an April 29 letter to Senator Tim Johnson, NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson noted that S. 2076, like other ?clone and kill? bills, would permit human embryos to be cloned and killed for research. But in addition, the wording of S. 2076 also ?would permit cloned human embryos to be implanted in uteruses (human or other), grown to various stages of development (even, for example, to the advanced stage of pregnancy at which partial-birth abortions are performed), and then aborted to provide developed organs, tissues, or cells for research or transplantation,? he wrote.

Such practices would be permissible under S. 2076 because the bill bans implanting cloned human embryos in human or animal uteruses only if this is done ?for the purpose of creating a cloned human being.? A definition of the term ?human being? is conspicuously absent from the bill. On April 19, Senator Johnson wrote, ?I do not, however, believe that the fetus (regardless of term) ought to be considered by the law as a separate human being from the mother.? If a ?fetus? is not a ?human being? (?regardless of term?), ...