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American Morning

House to Debate Human Cloning, Stem Cell Research

Aired July 31, 2001 - 09:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Elsewhere in Washington, the House is set to deal with the controversial issue of human cloning. The focus is a discussion on whether to use federal money for stem cell research.

We get the latest on all this from CNN medical news correspondent Rea Blakey.

Rea, good morning.

REA BLAKEY, CNN MEDICAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

Today's debate may be about human cloning, but it will surely push forth the issue on whether to life the ban on embryonic stem cell research. The House is weighing the pros and cons of the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001. It was introduced by Florida Republican Dave Weldon. It would make it unlawful to perform or attempt to perform human cloning and ship or receive for any purpose an embryo produced by human cloning. The penalties would include up to 10 years in prison and/or a minimum $1 million fine.

Alternative legislation is being discussed in the House. Legislation sponsored by Pennsylvania Republican Jim Greenwood would also ban human cloning, but it would allow embryo cloning for research purposes, which gets back to the stem cell debate since that debate is focused on the stem cells available in embryos.

Meanwhile, Advanced Cell Technology, a biotechnology firm in Massachusetts, says it already has a project under way to mass produce human embryos by cloning. No one knows if those embryos would be viable. but the company says it would only use the embryos in medical experimentation. They would not be in the business, they say, of trying to creating walking, talking human clones.

The National Right to Life Committee strongly opposes cloning. President Bush -- who, reportedly, is agonizing over whether to allow federal funding for stem cell research -- will be surely be carefully watching the human cloning debate, which the Republicans have brought to center stage -- Leon.

HARRIS: We have been watching President Bush as he has been, as you say, agonizing over this issue. So many people have been waiting to see which way he's going to come down on both of these topics, stem cell research and the cloning issue. What about the support there in the Congress? Do we know what the numbers are there?

BLAKEY: We don't at this hour. We do know that what will go on today will have about an hour's worth of debate over the Weldon legislation and then an hour's worth of debate over Greenwood, and then a vote is expected. This all begins at about 11:30.

We're not certain where the Democrats fall on this. We do know that the Republicans are the people who brought this issue to fore, some say as a bit of a dress rehearsal, if you will, for the president to make his announcement.

HARRIS: Rea Blakey, in Washington. Thank you very much. We'll see you later on.

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