Dim Chance for Global Cloning Ban
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SAO PAULO, BRAZIL, June 2, 2004 — Brigitte Boisselier, a French biochemist and the chief executive officer of Clonaid, announced in March 2003 that her group would present proof of the first human clone at a parents' gathering in Brazil. She said that Clonaid would offer its services to couples wanting children, gay couples, people with HIV and those who had lost a loved one. Boisselier told reporters she was offering a special discount for human clones to Brazilian customers, approximately $200,000 per clone. >>
WASHINGTON, June 2, 2004 — Since Congress first mooted legislation on the issue in 1997 following the birth of Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, some 44 bills have been introduced on the human cloning issue. >>
WASHINGTON, April 19, 2004 — Although two successive presidents have publicly opposed human reproductive cloning, the federal government's aggressive funding of experiments in cloning technology in nonhuman primates is bringing human cloning closer to reality. >>
Special Report
WASHINGTON, March 2, 2004 — Having helped block federal legislation that would ban human cloning for therapeutic purposes, the biotechnology industry is lobbying a handful of state legislatures to pass bills that would legalize the controversial techniques. Five states are currently considering nearly identical measures that the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the industry's lobbying group, advocates; two other states, California and New Jersey, have already passed such measures into law. >>
February 15, 2001 — Nearly three years after Dolly, there still is no federal legislation in place to regulate or even supervise human cloning. What is perhaps the most complex scientific and moral issue ever faced by Congress has become the object of traditional inside-the-Beltway maneuverings. >>
WASHINGTON, August 24, 2000 — The National Institutes of Health yesterday announced it will allow federal funding of research on 'stem cells' obtained by the destruction of human embryos. While patients may eventually benefit from this research, so will the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Second in a series of ongoing reports. >>
50 States Watch
WASHINGTON, July 26, 2000 — It was a sweet moment for J. Craig Venter, the president and chief scientific officer of Celera Genomics Inc. of Rockville, Md. On June 26, Venter and the head of the Human Genome Project, the government's genome venture, announced to a crowd assembled at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., that they had finished decoding a rough draft of the human genome, which contains the entire set of human genes. Some in the audience raised questions about how much of "God's handwriting" would be controlled by a private corporation. Attempting to reassure the skeptics, Venter said, "No one is proposing to patent the genome." >>