A Ban on Therapeutic Cloning Hurts American Science

The Brownback Bill (S. 1899) is Bad for American Science and Medical Progress

  • Enactment of a government ban on therapeutic cloning as in the Brownback bill would be a dangerous precedent because it would mean that ideology has dictated American medical research priorities.
  • Enactment of a ban is anti-science and medical research and contrary to US history. The US has consistently been the world's leader in biomedical research. But the Brownback bill is inconsistent with long standing US policy to support scientific inquiry. It would be the first time that the US government criminalized biotech research. Freedom of research has led to the development of over 117 biotech products that have helped more than 250 million people worldwide.
  • Other countries allow therapeutic cloning research. For example, government leaders in the UK said that they expect their country to become the world's leader in this new area of biotech research and they expect that some of the world's best cellular biologists will leave the US and live in the UK. Companies in the UK are expecting dramatic increases in their ability to obtain private and public funding, as well as intellectual property rights. This will allow them to secure a larger share of this new and expanding medical frontier.