Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 23:12:57 -0500 (EST)
From: belmonte@MIT.EDU (Matthew Belmonte)
To: CapuanoHR8@aol.com
Subject: oppose bans on human cloning

Dear Representative Capuano

I urge you to oppose two bills that would outlaw human cloning, the Human
Cloning Prohibition Act (HR 534) and the Cloning Prohibition Act (HR 801).

Although both of these bills infringe on reproductive choice, HR 534 is the
worse of the two since it would ban not only reproductive cloning but also
therapeutic cloning.  Therapeutic cloning has great potential to supplant and
perhaps to replace risky transplants and tissue grafts which require patients
to take immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of their lives.

We do not stigmatise identical twins, who are natural clones of each other.
Why, then, should clones created with technological assistance be viewed any
more negatively than natural clones?  Although current cloning procedures can
lead to defects and would therefore be unethical to apply in humans, this will
not always be the case.  A comprehensive and perpetual ban on cloning of the
complete human organism will only produce a disincentive to the development of
more advanced and safe techniques.  If the technology is allowed to develop,
within the next decades human cloning will become a reproductive option for
prospective parents whose spouses suffer from genetic defects or who have other
barriers to natural reproduction.

Again, I hope that you'll oppose bans on therapeutic cloning and on
reproductive cloning.

Matthew Belmonte
[address]