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Comprehensive Human Cloning Ban and Cord Blood Donation Bill to Receive Assembly Passes Morning-After Pill Ban
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Wednesday, June 22, 2005


June 22, 2005

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

Comprehensive Human Cloning Ban and Cord Blood Donation Bill to Receive Assembly Vote Tomorrow Ban

The State Assembly will take up separate bills Thursday that would place a complete ban on human cloning and facilitate the donation of newborn umbilical cord blood in Wisconsin.

Assembly Bill 499, authored by Representative Steve Kestell (R-Elkhart Lake), would ban both “reproductive cloning” – where a cloned human embryo is brought to birth, and “research cloning” – where a cloned human embryo is killed by extracting its stem cells. The ban also extends to human parthenogenesis, a form of reproduction in which the ovum is artificially stimulated to develop into a new human individual without fertilization.

“We must defend the dignity of each human being by rejecting the utilitarian and dehumanizing practice of cloning,” said Peggy Hamill, state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin. “Pro-Life Wisconsin wants to see research progress toward the treatment of disease, and we can move forward ethically so long as we do not create a life simply to kill it for the benefit of another. Wisconsinites deserve the assurance that their state can build on its lead in biotechnology without compromising its bioethics,” said Hamill.

Assembly Bill 270, authored by Representative Steve Wieckert (R-Appleton), would require the principal prenatal health care provider of a pregnant woman to offer her the option to donate blood extracted from the umbilical cord of her newborn child to a blood bank. The offer of an option to donate only applies if the donation is at no monetary cost to the woman, her health insurance provider, or to the hospital in which the delivery will occur for collection or storage. Also, the offer must be made before the potential donor reaches her 35th week of pregnancy.

“Ethically uncontroversial, clinically proven cord blood stem cells are adult-type stem cells which do not require the destruction of human embryos,” said Matt Sande, director of legislative affairs for Pro-Life Wisconsin. “Cord blood stem cells have been used to treat many life-threatening diseases. Assembly Bill 270 will help to increase the available inventory of cord blood units in Wisconsin and the nation. It will save lives.”

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