WASHINGTON, February 28, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – By a decisive, bipartisan vote, the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation to prohibit the creation of human embryos by cloning yesterday. The House approved the Weldon-Stupak Human Cloning Prohibition Act (H.R. 534), 241-155. The House first rejected, 174-231, the Greenwood Substitute which aimed to allow human cloning for research purposes and ban it for reproductive purposes. “We applaud the lawmakers who heeded President Bush’s call to ban the creation of human embryos,” said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). “Polls show the public is overwhelmingly opposed to the cloning of human embryos, but some senators are threatening to filibuster the bill in order to allow biotech firms to open up cloned human embryo farms.” In his January 28 State of the Union address, President Bush repeated his past calls for Congress to approve legislation to ban all human cloning. On February 26, the White House issued a statement strongly condemning the substitute proposal, saying: “The Administration unequivocally is opposed to the cloning of human beings either for reproduction or for research. . . . The Administration is strongly opposed to any legislation that would prohibit human cloning for reproductive purposes but permit the creation of cloned embryos or development of human embryo farms for research, which would require the destruction of nascent human life.”
Roll call vote by which the U.S. House of Representatives rejected, 174-231, the NRLC-opposed Greenwood Substitute, a bill to allow the cloning of human embryos and human embryo farms (February 27, 2003) https://clerkweb.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=2003&rollnumber=37
Roll call vote by which the U.S. House of Representatives passed, 241-155, the NRLC-backed Weldon-Stupak bill (H.R. 534), a bill to ban the creation of human embryos by cloning (February 27, 2003). https://clerkweb.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=2003&rollnumber=39