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Stardate 20010801.0018 (On Screen): I'm getting confused about just what today's House vote on human cloning really means WRT fetal cell research. Most of the coverage I've read suggest that the House vote implicitly covered both issues, but this CNN report suggests that they're being handled separately. Apparently today's vote was on a bill which would make it illegal to "clone" a human with heavy fines and prison time for violators. I actually support some of that. I think that the idea of trying to create a child who is genetically identical to an adult is a road we do not want to travel. On the other hand, this bill would also make illegal any attempt to develop a process whereby someone's own cells could be cultured to grow a new heart or kidney or other organ which could then be transplanted into them without any danger of rejection. I think that even without a ban it would be a long time before this was possible, but this would ban any attempt to make this happen at all. I think that is wrong.

The other thing this would ban is deliberate attempts to harvest human eggs to be fertilized in order to create cells for fetal research. It would not ban the use of spare fetuses left over from in vitro fertilization clinics, which is the primary source now for fetal cell research. What's not clear to me is how it would affect research on adult stem cells; it may also make that illegal.

The margin of victory in the House on this bill was much greater than the Republican majority, and I know that some Republicans opposed this bill, so a great many Democrats must have voted for it. The Senate Majority leader has stated that he favors this bill. It remains to be seen how many Representatives and Senators will vote the other way when the issue of fetal stem cell research finally comes before them. The indications are that it will not go the same way. In the mean time, our President still hasn't issued a decision on fetal stem cell research, and I wish he'd get on with it. What is he waiting for? (discuss)

Update 20010801: It looks as if the House vote was a show-vote, an opportunity for Representatives to take a stance for the benefit of the voters back home, secure in the knowledge that the other chamber will reject it. This happens now and again, and it makes more sense of this. The Washington Post speculates that there is a good chance this bill will be defeated in the Senate.