Deal Hudson reports
In response to a questionnaire submitted by ScienceDebat2008, the McCain campaign indicated a McCain administration would continue the present limitations on research instituted by President Bush and would seek to outlaw somatic cell transfer completely.
Deal credits McCain adviser Sen. Brownback for this. The above statement pretty much matches what the campaign site says in regards to McCain not supporting creation of human embryos. I guess he needs to let his spokesman Brian Rogers in on this. Now we just need a congress that would actually seek to ban all aspects of human cloning completely.
7 comments
I support a ban on cloning but does a ban on “somatic cell transfer” include a ban on adult stem cell research? Bone marrow transplants are the most common example and this method is used to treat children with leukemia. No embryonic human being ever develops or is killed in such a process but you could technically label it “somatic cell transfer”. Bans of this type would be too broad – I assume they’ll be careful with the definitions but well intended laws go wrong all the time. Need more specifics.
Somatic cell transfer is the technical name for cloning and has nothing to do with adult stem cells.
Wow – maybe as soon as McCain gets elected to the US Senate he can introduce such a ban….I mean now that McCain has completed his 22nd year (twenty second – a lifetime – a whole era) in the Senate maybe he will have time to introduce such a bill….and just after that he might even make a discreet phone call to some Christian during the March for Life and say “gosh I really would not mind if this whole “abortion” thing just went away…”
Jeff,
I have a PhD in molecular biology and scientifically speaking “somatic cell transfer” is vague. Even if it may be the term commonly used as a euphemism among scientists for embryonic cloning it’s not wise to legislate under a vague term, that’s all I really mean to say.
Somatic cells are all non gametic cells and “transfer” is vague as well. I assume here they refer to nuclear transfer, but that’s not clear. Cloning is more specific but it’s too vague as well, because cloning in the molecular biology world can refer to the replication of single genes or whole organisms.
geeze my mental filters are on full power.
For a second there I thought the article said “Seek Cloaking ban” and not Cloning-ban.
I must have “Trek” on the brain today …
The problem is that McCain still supports the use of existing human embryos in research when they weren’t initially created for that purpose even if he opposes the creation of such for research purposes.
What if it said Clowning ban? You’d sure get a lot of support there, many people fear and/or hate clowns!
And isn’t Bozo’s evil twin brother Bozo the Clone? hee hee