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This Sunday New Jersey Governor to Sign Bill Allowing Human Cloning

NEWARK, December 19, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This Sunday, December 21, New Jersey Governor James McGreevy is set to sign into law a controversial bill that permit human cloning. The Assembly narrowly passed the bill Monday and the Senate passed it last year.

The bill allows destructive experimentation on embryonic human beings 'left over' from infertility clinics. The bill also permits the artificial manufacture of cloned human beings and permits those human clones to be implanted into a uterus at the embryonic stage and harvested for research and killed at any time from the embryonic period through the ninth month of gestation.

This seemingly incredible point is brought to light in the bill's supposed ban of "cloning of a human being." The legislation goes on to define that: "As used in this section, 'cloning of a human being' means the replication of a human individual by cultivating a cell with genetic material through the egg, embryo, fetal and newborn stages into a new human individual." Marie Tasy, Director of Public & Legislative Affairs for New Jersey Right to Life explained that "Because the prohibited conduct of cloning a human being draws the line only at the newborn stage, abortions including partial birth abortions up to the day of delivery would be authorized under this legislation."

While the biotech companies backing the bill are claiming it bans human cloning, Tasy points out that the bill expressly permits research involving the derivation and use of human embryonic stem cells including "somatic cell nuclear transplantation" - which is a popular method of human cloning as noted by the President's Council on Bioethics.

See a letter sent to Governor McGreevey from the President's Council on Bioethics.
http://www.njrtl.org/govletter.php

NJRTL is engaging in a last-ditch effort to urge the Governor to veto the legislation:
His phone number is 609 292-6000. Fax number is (609) 292-3454
e-mail: http://www.state.nj.us/governor/govmail.html

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