Caffeinated Thoughts: Clone & Kill Bill in the Iowa Senate

Following Governor Culver's lead, the Iowa Senate Human Resources Committee is discussing a bill, SF 115, the "Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative". The name and language in this bill is very misleading. What it really does is repeals the "Human Cloning Ban (Iowa Code 707B), a bipartisan piece of legislation that was signed into law by Governor Vilsack in 2002.

It then will replace that ban with a ban against "reproductive cloning". Sounds good right? Wrong! The bill itself states:

"Human reproductive cloning" does not include somatic cell nuclear transfer performed for the purpose of creating embryonic stem cells.

The bill goes on to define what somatic cell nuclear transfer is:

"Human somatic cell" means a diploid cell having a complete set of chromosomes obtained or derived from a living or deceased human body at any stage of development.
"Somatic cell nuclear transfer" means a technique in which the nucleus of a human somatic cell is injected or transplanted into a fertilized or unfertilized oocyte (human ovum) from which the nucleus has been removed.

So in other words - clone away, just don't implant it into a mother's womb! If SF 115 passes it will allow cloning embryonic stem cells in order to grow them for scientific research. There is no limit in this bill for the amount that could be cloned or the age they would be allowed to grow to. This is essentially a "clone and kill" bill.

Please contact your senator to ask them to oppose SF 115. Also please contact the following members of the Senate Human Resources Committee to ask them to oppose this bill: