Human Cloning Comes to Iowa

February 12, 2007

Governor Chet Culver and Senate Democrats are pushing an agenda that calls for a repeal of the ban on human cloning (SF 115).  Senate Democrats and Governor Culver support for human cloning is based on the goal of acquiring transplant materials and embryonic stem cells for research, but what they don’t acknowledge is how this change in policy challenges our way of thinking about the ethics of science.

Despite what you may have heard there is currently no ban on embryonic stem cell research in Iowa.  The current ban on cloning simply does not allow for new embryos to be created for research by cloning.  The Iowa Code (§707B.4) states that it is illegal to clone anything, receive a cloned anything, or participate in cloning activities such as “somatic cell nuclear transfer”, the technical name for human cloning.  The bill has no concerns with embryonic stem cell research, it seems the only reason Culver wants to repeal this bill is his desire to clone human embryos to support a zealous research agenda.

As an Iowan I believe in the spark of life, and I believe, as many Iowans, that this spark begins at the moment of conception.  This holds true even for an ovum altered through the process of “somatic cell nuclear transfer” and subsequently fertilized in a test tube.  A bundle of cells becomes a cloned embryo and has the potential to become a cloned human being.   

If it is true that all potential human beings regardless of how they are formed have this spark of life, then is it our place to categorize potential life into separate bins of utility?  In the eyes of Senate Democrats embryos are created for multiple purposes; some for adoption, implantation and life as a beloved son or daughter and some created and then destroyed in service to a researcher’s vision of the greater good. 

I’m not an ethicist, but as a politician I have an obligation to reach ethical conclusions when issues present themselves in a way that challenges our shared sense of right and wrong.  I happen to believe that it is wrong to clone human beings for the purposes of harvesting genetically matched material for scientific study and I believe that Governor Culver and Senate Democrats are misguided in their attempt to lift this ban. 

Senate Republicans will listen to the arguments, but in the end I believe we will side with the majority of Iowans and vote against lifting the ban on human cloning.