Washington, DC — The U.S. Senate may begin debate as early as this week on a pro-life bill (S 1899), sponsored by pro-life Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Sen. Mary Landrieu (R-LA), that would ban both therapeutic and reproductive cloning.
However, if Senate debate continues to be postponed, Brownback may “soon go through with his threat” to attach the cloning ban legislation as an amendment to a separate bill, such as legislation on hate crimes that the Senate may debate this week.
“It's an option,” said Brownback spokesman Erik Hotmire. “We'll know more [this] week.”
Rich Masters, communications director for Landrieu, also said that Brownback and Landrieu may propose a “sunset provision” in the bill that would impose a moratorium on human cloning for a set amount of time, in order to attract more support for the legislation from “swing-vote senators” who are “apprehensive about cloning but don't want to be 'anti-science' or 'anti-research.'”
Brownback and Landrieu might propose a ban on all forms of human cloning “for three, five, six years or whatever,” Masters said. “Then we would see where the science was, and come back and look at it.”
Masters said, however, that the senators would not include an exemption in the legislation to allow scientists to pursue therapeutic cloning during the ban. Such an amendment would draw strong opposition from pro-life groups.
The pro-cloning camp says 10 votes are still in play.
“I think they are optimistic that it's that few (only 10),” said Masters. “I think there's a lot more than that in play. There's a lot of uncertainty out there.”
Louisiana Democrat John Breaux is one of the 10 “in play” votes. Breaux has said that he'll vote for the Brownback-Landrieu ban if possible. But he made himself a swing vote by adding, “It might not be that simple.”
It's unclear how the bills will be presented to the Senate and in what sequence. If it becomes obvious that the Brownback-Landrieu ban won't survive, it might be necessary to pass an alternative bill that at least imposes some limits on cloning, Breaux has said.
But what's certain, Masters said, is that the Senate leadership will bring the cloning issue to the Senate floor in June and will dispose of it before July 4. “Book it,” he said. “It's coming up.”
ACTION: Please contact your U.S. Senators at 202-224-3121 and urge strong support for the Brownback-Landrieu ban on human cloning (S. 1899).
(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)