« Ind. Decisions - Councilmen regain seats: Judge says ouster of convicted officials relied on wrong statute | Main | Env't - More on blue bag dump site, and other stories »
Friday, January 14, 2005
Ind. Law - Debate brewing in Indiana over human cloning
"Debate brewing in Indiana over human cloning" is the headline to a lengthy front-page Indianapolis Star article today by Robert King, the Star's religion editor. Some quotes:
As a nurse, state Sen. Pat Miller knows the promise biotechnology offers to medicine. But she says certain areas of research raise too many moral questions. That's why she's pushing a bill to ban human cloning in Indiana. * * *Information on Senator Miller's bill, SB 268, is available here. The digest of the introduced bill reads:[President] Bush shut off the spigot on federal funding for new embryonic stem cell research. But, in November, stem cell proponents took their case to California voters, who approved $3 billion in state research funding. * * *
California's stem cell cash bonanza has set the stage for what some are likening to a new gold rush. Some worry that leading scientists might follow the money. And some states are considering whether to follow California's lead, for fear they might suffer a brain drain. * * *
State Sen. Miller isn't sure whether human-cloning research is going on in Indiana. But the consequences are so potentially disastrous that the General Assembly must act, she said.
"If you clone a human being, and they have an artificial aging process so that by the time a child is a year old they have the body and age of an 80-year-old, there is a number of issues that are ethical and moral there," Miller said.
State Rep. David Orentlicher, an Indianapolis Democrat and an Indiana University bioethicist, said lawmakers are right to step in when there are clear ethical problems. But he sees plenty of gray areas that require a more measured approach. * * *
He worries that limits could hurt Indiana's attempts to promote itself as a haven for biomedical research. But Miller said her cloning bill would not hurt research that offers Indiana both economic benefits and a clear conscience -- preventive medicine now that could help the state avoid thornier problems later.
"If we wait for things to evolve," she said, "there can be a great deal of damage."
Synopsis: Cloning. Declares that human cloning is against public policy. Prohibits the state, a state educational institution, or a political subdivision of the state from using resources to knowingly participate in human cloning activities. Requires the state department of health to revoke the license of a hospital that knowingly allows human cloning activities. Requires the medical licensing board to revoke the license of a physician who knowingly participates in human cloning. Makes: (1) the unlawful participation in; (2) the implantation of or the attempt to implant the product of; and (3) the shipment or receipt of the product of; human cloning a Class D felony. Makes the purchase or sale of a human ovum, zygote, embryo, or fetus a Class C felony.Here are some of the definitions used in the introduced version of SB 268:
"Human embryo" means a human egg cell with a full genetic composition capable of differentiating and maturing into a complete human being."Cloning" means the use of asexual reproduction to create or grow a human embryo from a single cell or cells of a genetically identical human.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 14, 2005 12:46 PM
Posted to Indiana Law