Legislators may ban cloning

"I don't think we should have any human experimentation," said Sen. Loren Bennett, (R-Canton Twp.) and sponsor of one of the four bills.

A fellow senator agreed - with reservations.

"I think most people are offended by human cloning," said Sen. John Schwarz, (R-Battle Creek) and the Senate's only medical doctor. "I think it's horrific.

"I am not convinced totally this will not have a chilling effect on research," he cautioned.

Bennett said doctors are getting close to cloning a human. "It's better to close the barn door before the horse has escaped," he said.

The four bills were approved on 3-0 votes of the Senate Health Policy and Senior Citizens Committee. They now go to the full Senate.

Under the bills, a person with a medical license who engaged in human cloning would lose his license for three to five years and be liable for a $10 million civil penalty.

Three of the bills have already passed the House in slightly different form, as the House voted overwhelmingly in January to ban the practice in Michigan. That followed the apparently successful cloning of the sheep Dolly in Scotland and increasing discussion of possible attempts to clone a human.

This year, a bill to ban human cloning was put on indefinite hold in the U.S. Senate when lawmakers expressed concerns it could slow scientific research, and the Scottish scientist who cloned Dolly said they may have made a mistake and will try the task again with other kinds of animals.

In addition, pharmaceutical companies began fighting anti-cloning bills in the states, which they argued could also prevent researchers from using routine techniques for developing new drugs, and President Clinton has called for a federal ban on human cloning.

The legislation advanced Tuesday was endorsed by Right to Life of Michigan and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association of Michigan. And while no one spoke against it, several officials said some cloning of tissues and other biological material was necessary to achieve medical advances.

"The purpose should not be to disabuse the scientific community of research," Schwarz said.

The anti-cloning bills are Senate Bill 864 and House Bills 4846. 4962 and 5475.

04-16-98