Press Room

Contact: Matt Sande, Director of Legislative Affairs
(262) 352-0890 or
Peggy Hamill, State Director
(262) 796-1111 or (414) 416-0489


Brave New World Arrives in New Jersey
Garden State Becomes Nation’s “Clone and Kill” Capitol

This week New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey (D) signed the most extreme law in the nation regarding human cloning and embryonic stem cell research. The new law would permit the cloning of a human embryo, its implantation into a womb, its development to the fetal stage, and then its destruction for “research purposes.”

“The New Jersey law claims to ban human cloning, but in reality promotes human cloning for experimental purposes and mandates that the cloned human embryos be destroyed,” said Matt Sande, Pro-Life Wisconsin’s director of legislative affairs. “The fact that it would allow a cloned pre-born baby to develop though all nine months of pregnancy before it is slaughtered is simply a macabre twist on most of the other ‘clone and kill’ bills out there.”

The law expressly endorses somatic cell nuclear transfer (a technical term for cloning) for research purposes but would prohibit reproductive cloning. “There is no difference between so-called ‘research cloning’ and ‘reproductive cloning’,” said Sande. “Both involve the reproduction of a fully human life. The immediate product of somatic cell nuclear transfer is a human person, whether the intent is to destroy that person for research or bring that person to birth.”

Because the New Jersey law permits the implantation of a cloned human embryo into a womb and its fetal development through all stages of pregnancy, there is a growing concern that the biotech industry will ‘create’ and kill en masse cloned pre-born babies for their spare body parts.

“The ghoulish practice of fetal harvesting is now the law in the State of New Jersey,” said Kirby Brant, Pro-Life Wisconsin’s legislative counsel. “The law prohibits selling fetal tissue, but only if it is to be used for ‘research.’ Trafficking in fetal body parts for other purposes, like medical treatment, would be OK.”

“The Wisconsin Legislature needs to pay attention to what’s going on in New Jersey and stand up for human life,” concluded Sande. “They can do that by quickly passing Assembly Bill 104 and Senate Bill 45, which place a comprehensive ban on human cloning.”

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