One impact of cloning human embryos for research is the physical risk to the women who donate the eggs. A Senate hearing in March illuminated the scope of the potential for injury. The people most likely to be hurt are the poor.
Cloning supporters concede millions of women would be needed to donate eggs, if cloning is allowed to proceed.
Jayd Henricks, congressional liaison with the Family Research Council, said one expert testified the harvesting process would seriously injure one percent of them. “We’re talking about thousands and thousands of women that we know will be injured through this procedure, Hendricks said.
Pro-life Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) is the Senate sponsor of the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003 (S 245). “Anytime you put your body through what’s called the super-ovulation process, there’s a certain percentage of women that are going to have physical problems or psychological problems,” Brownback said. He also said women would be paid $3,000 to $5,000 each, meaning poor women would be the most likely candidates for donation, making their bodies manufacturing plants for a hot commodity-the eggs used to clone human embryos for research.
The Brownback bill would ban all forms of cloning human embryos. He emphasized that cloning for research is currently legal in America and is under way at several labs. He also said the proposed law is needed because it is also legal to pay for women’s eggs in order to do research with them.
ACTION: Please contact your senators and urge them to support Senator Brownback’s Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003 (S 245). Let your senator know that the Brownback legislation is the only bill among several competing versions that you support. Emphasize that we need a bill that bans all forms of human cloning.
-Pro-life Infonet, April 1, 2003