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Anti-abortion activists call for cloning ban

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By The Associated Press

Tuesday, Feb 06, 2007 - 05:02:12 pm CST

Anti-abortion activists in the state on Tuesday threw their weight behind a legislative bill that would ban human cloning.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center currently doesn’t clone human embryos for reproductive purposes or to harvest stem cells for research on how to cure diseases, and there is a universitywide policy against doing so. That policy has the same provisions as the proposed ban introduced to the Legislature.

But Greg Schleppenbach of the Nebraska Catholic Conference said during a Capitol news conference that a statutory ban is needed to prevent the practice in the future.

The bill (LB700) that would ban human cloning for both research and reproductive purposes was introduced by Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial and has not yet been debated by the Legislature.

A majority of state senators co-signed the bill, an indication that passage is likely.


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WCG wrote on February 7, 2007 11:40 am:
" Why are these groups trying to force their own religious beliefs on everyone else? When you get right down to it, what is wrong with cloning? A baby is still a baby, whether it was created by cloning or by fertilizing an egg. If you think a god is involved somewhere, then you're perfectly justified in not getting cloned, yourself. But NOT to force that decision on everyone. The fact is, we already have - we've always had - clones. Identical twins are nothing more than clones, after all. Growing anti-science superstitions in America are truly frightening. Believe whatever makes you feel good, but DON'T force your religious beliefs on the rest of us! "

GNF wrote on February 7, 2007 12:06 pm:
" So in the case of cloning, if it were ever to occur, would the slogan need to be change to "Fro conception or "somatic cell nuclear transfer to natural death"? "

Not Religious wrote on February 7, 2007 4:17 pm:
" Although these groups are have religious underpinnings, this really is not a religious issue at all. At issue is manufacturing human embryo's for harvest. Human farming basically. Sure, it's a 'couple hundred undifferentiated cells in a dish', and that evidently is reason enough to deny these unique, human cluster of cells the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? If left to normal development, these globs of cells are develop in to adult humans...yet you want to deny they are human...until when, they are born? So, one day post birth, they aren't a human child? It's a crime to harm a fetus in utero, why then? It has no rights...except it does according to law. What a set of contradiction the anti-life crowd has. Sad, truly sad. "

Annette Wurdeman, Columbus NE wrote on February 9, 2007 2:01 am:
" The research doctors all miss the point. I believe that every human embryo has soul. Most a these research doctors do not even believe in the soul. I heard them testify at the last Judiciary Hearing in 2006, concerning the Ban on Cloning. One of the UNMC Doctors said we do not know where the soul is. In other words they can not see the soul so they do believe the embryo has a soul. They can't see my soul so in their reasoning I do not have a soul either. They probably do not believe in Jesus Christ either but if they did they would realize that when God became man he identified with every stage of our human development. Jesus Christ was an embryo. How can those of us who believe in Jesus Christ say that all the embryo is, is a punch of precious cells??? Also after listening for 3 years to UNMC Doctors testify at the Judiciary hearings the main reason they want to do this research is because they do not want to loose the research doctors to other states because they are not allowed to do the research here. There main reason is the reputation that they want UNMC to have. They use me and other Parkinson patients as well as Diabetic patients as there excuse. What a terrible feeling of guilt they put on the Pro-life Patients. They cause us more suffering than the disease itself causes. We learn to mourn for every human life that is taken to make our lives better. What kind of doctor does this to a patient??? May God forgive them. "