Pro-Life Group Exposes Universities' Push to Defeat Louisiana Cloning Ban
by Rusty Pugh
July 7, 2005
(AgapePress) - A pro-life law firm says people should know that two major universities in Louisiana are in favor of human cloning and vigorously oppose a state ban on the practice.The Bioethics Defense Fund (BDF), a national public-interest law firm that promotes the right to life from beginning to end, has launched a campaign to let people know that two prominent universities in the Bayou State -- Tulane University and Louisiana State University -- are both working against a ban on human cloning for destructive embryo experimentation.
BDF executive director Dorinda Bordlee says cloning embryos just to kill them is wrong -- and that supporters of Tulane and LSU need to know what is going on.
"This [campaign is designed] to shed light on the fact that they may be considering doing this," Bordlee explains. "So we want [the two schools] to know that if they're going to start clone-and-kill research here in Louisiana, they're going to have to explain that to the public -- the same public that loves Tulane and LSU.
"We love their football teams, we send our kids to their colleges -- and we deserve to know what their plans are," the pro-life spokeswoman adds.
Bordlee says for three years Tulane and LSU have successfully blocked a bill to ban human cloning. "They have testified in committee, Tulane has hired lobbyists to work against this, and they have supported the 'Clone and Kill bill,' which would allow them and other private entities to create cloned human embryos and destroy them for destructive human embryo research," she states.
The citizens of Louisiana, she says, "want cures and not clones" -- and deserve to know the two universities are exerting efforts to defeat the state ban on human cloning for research. The Comprehensive Human Cloning Ban (HB 492) is supported by Democratic U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, co-author of the federal cloning ban.
Rusty Pugh, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
