Wise Delay on Anti-Cloning Bills

Several days ago Congress seemed on the verge of passing what House Majority Leader Dick Armey called “a permanent ban on human cloning to keep this frightening idea the province of the mad scientists of science fiction.” On Wednesday, however, when a bill to do just that was fast-tracked directly to the Senate floor, senators abruptly changed course and decided to postpone any vote on cloning legislation. What changed their minds was last-minute lobbying from medical groups like the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation that argued the proposed bills would not only prohibit human cloning, they would also prevent scientists from learning how human cells divide and how to use this information to develop cures for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s.

Congress’ abrupt turnaround shows that legislators will not succumb to demands for ethical certainty if the trade-off is hobbling medical science. The same can be said of most Americans. In 1988, for example, after a New Jersey court ruled surrogate motherhood contracts illegal, several states followed suit and observers said the era of surrogacy was over. Prospective parents quickly found ways around those laws, and now surrogate births are booming.

Today, the House begins its hearings on cloning, and Senate hearings are expected soon. As a short-term solution to cloning’s ethical dilemmas, Congress should consider passing a bill by Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Edward Kennedy that would put a 10-year moratorium on the implantation of cloned cells in a woman’s uterus, a process that would be necessary to create a cloned human being. But cloning techniques short of creating a child will continue to raise profound ethical issues. For instance, while many Americans would support cloning techniques to alter fetal genes that could lead to cancer, should such techniques also be used to change hair color or prevent nearsightedness?

The lack of easy answers to such questions underscores the wisdom of Congress this week in postponing hasty action on cloning.