Yesterday(woops! I started writing this last Fiday)Last week, Senators Orin Hatch of Utah and Diane Feinstein of California reintroduced their Cloning Ban and Stem Cell Protection Act. This ‘ban on human cloning’, just like with Amendment 2, refers only to the implantation and birth of a cloned child. Perhaps the most ludicrous language, however, came from Sen. Orin Hatch’s website. This debate is no longer scientific, it’s just plain ridiculous. According to the Sen. the product of SCNT is now, not an embryo, not a pre-embryo, not a blastocyst, but an unfertilized egg. “[this bill will] Allow the most promising form of stem cell research (somatic cell nuclear transplantation) to be conducted on a human egg for up to 14 days only…Allow this stem cell research only to take place on unfertilized eggs.” WHAT?! An unfertilized egg is just an egg – no stem cells! Then, on the Senate floor last Thursday he said this:

“Scientists are now working with stem cells created by a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer. In this laboratory procedure, the DNA from the cell of one adult is inserted into an empty egg that has been donated from another adult. The result, if the science develops further, is a collection of stem cells that could become a kidney or liver.”

Excuse me, Sen. Hatch, but SCNT creates a living human organism, not spare human organs! Oh, wait, he did acknowledge that these “cells” could become a human being if they are implanted into a uterus. Last I checked, you could not implant a kidney or a liver into a woman’s uterus and get a human being. I really hope Sen. Hatch is not as ignorant as he sounds here.