| The East Room, April 10, 2002
I particularly want to honour three folks
who I had the honour of meeting earlier: Joni Tada, Jim Kelly
and Steve McDonald. I want to thank you for your courage,
I want to thank you for your wisdom, I want to thank you for
your extraordinary perseverance and faith. They have triumphed
in the face of physical disability and share a deep commitment
to medicine that is practised ethically and humanely.
All of us here today believe in the promise
of modern medicine. We're hopeful about where science may
take us. And we're also here because we believe in the principles
of ethical medicine.
As we seek to improve human life, we must
always preserve human dignity. And therefore, we must prevent
human cloning by stopping it before it starts.
We live in a time of tremendous medical progress. A little
more than a year ago, scientists first cracked the human genetic
code -- one of the most important advances in scientific history.
Already, scientists are developing new diagnostic tools so
that each of us can know our risk of disease and act to prevent
them.
One day soon, precise therapies will be
custom made for our own genetic makeup. We're on the threshold
of historic breakthroughs against AIDS and Alzheimer's Disease
and cancer and diabetes and heart disease and Parkinson's
Disease. And that's incredibly positive.
Our age may be known to history as the age
of genetic medicine, a time when many of the most feared illnesses
were overcome. Our age must also be defined by the care and
restraint and responsibility with which we take up these new
scientific powers.
Advances in biomedical technology must never
come at the expense of human conscience. As we seek what is
possible, we must always ask what is right, and we must not
forget that even the most noble ends do not justify any means.
Science has set before us decisions of immense
consequence. We can pursue medical research with a clear sense
of moral purpose or we can travel without an ethical compass
into a world we could live to regret. Science now presses
forward the issue of human cloning. How we answer the question
of human cloning will place us on one path or the other.
Human cloning is the laboratory production of individuals
who are genetically identical to another human being. Cloning
is achieved by putting the genetic material from a donor into
a woman's egg, which has had its nucleus removed. As a result,
the new or cloned embryo is an identical copy of only the
donor. Human cloning has moved from science fiction into science.
One biotech company has already began producing
embryonic human clones for research purposes. Chinese scientists
have derived stem cells from cloned embryos created by combining
human DNA and rabbit eggs. Others have announced plans to
produce cloned children, despite the fact that laboratory
cloning of animals has lead to spontaneous abortions and terrible,
terrible abnormalities.
Human cloning is deeply troubling to me,
and to most Americans. Life is a creation, not a commodity.
Our children are gifts to be loved and protected, not products
to be designed and manufactured. Allowing cloning would be
taking a significant step toward a society in which human
beings are grown for spare body parts, and children are engineered
to custom specifications; and that's not acceptable.
In the current debate over human cloning, two terms are being
used: reproductive cloning and research cloning. Reproductive
cloning involves creating a cloned embryo and implanting it
into a woman with the goal of creating a child. Fortunately,
nearly every American agrees that this practice should be
banned. Research cloning, on the other hand, involves the
creation of cloned human embryos which are then destroyed
to derive stem cells.
I believe all human cloning is wrong, and both forms of cloning
ought to be banned, for the following reasons. First, anything
other than a total ban on human cloning would be unethical.
Research cloning would contradict the most fundamental principle
of medical ethics, that no human life should be exploited
or extinguished for the benefit of another.
Yet a law permitting research cloning, while
forbidding the birth of a cloned child, would require the
destruction of nascent human life. Secondly, anything other
than a total ban on human cloning would be virtually impossible
to enforce. Cloned human embryos created for research would
be widely available in laboratories and embryo farms. Once
cloned embryos were available, implantation would take place.
Even the tightest regulations and strict policing would not
prevent or detect the birth of cloned babies.
Third, the benefits of research cloning
are highly speculative. Advocates of research cloning argue
that stem cells obtained from cloned embryos would be injected
into a genetically identical individual without risk of tissue
rejection. But there is evidence, based on animal studies,
that cells derived from cloned embryos may indeed be rejected.
Yet even if research cloning were medically
effective, every person who wanted to benefit would need an
embryonic clone of his or her own, to provide the designer
tissues. This would create a massive national market for eggs
and egg donors, and exploitation of women's bodies that we
cannot and must not allow. I stand firm in my opposition to
human cloning. And at the same time, we will pursue other
promising and ethical ways to relieve suffering through biotechnology.
This year for the first time, federal dollars will go towards
supporting human embryonic stem cell research consistent with
the ethical guidelines I announced last August.
The National Institutes of Health is also funding a broad
range of animal and human adult stem cell research. Adult
stem cells which do not require the destruction of human embryos
and which yield tissues which can be transplanted without
rejection are more versatile that originally thought.
We're making progress. We're learning more
about them. And therapies developed from adult stem cells
are already helping suffering people.
I support increasing the research budget
of the NIH, and I ask Congress to join me in that support.
And at the same time, I strongly support a comprehensive law
against all human cloning. And I endorse the bill -- wholeheartedly
endorse the bill -- sponsored by Senator Brownback and Senator
Mary Landrieu.
This carefully drafted bill would ban all
human cloning in the United States, including the cloning
of embryos for research. It is nearly identical to the bipartisan
legislation that last year passed the House of Representatives
by more than a 100-vote margin. It has wide support across
the political spectrum, liberals and conservatives support
it, religious people and non religious people support it.
Those who are pro-choice and those who are pro-life support
the bill.
This is a diverse coalition, united by a
commitment to prevent the cloning and exploitation of human
beings. It would be a mistake for the United States Senate
to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber.
I'm an incurable optimist about the future of our country.
I know we can achieve great things. We can make the world
more peaceful, we can become a more compassionate nation.
We can push the limits of medical science. I truly believe
that we're going to bring hope and healing to countless lives
across the country. And as we do, I will insist that we always
maintain the highest of ethical standards.
Thank you all for coming. God bless.
To view the video or listen to the audio of the president's
speech, visit this website:
htt0p://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/04/20020410-4.html
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