Supporters of Pro-Life Wisconsin have been calling, writing and e-mailing the Governors office urging him to sign AB 499, the comprehensive ban on human cloning. Many Pro-Life Wisconsin supporters have laughed at the irony of the Governors own website.
On the form to send an e-mail message to the Governor is a warning, Please DO NOT send multiple copies of the same email. One copy is sufficient.
I sent the Governor a message telling him that its true for people, too one copy is sufficient, said Jeanne Breunig, a Pro-Life Wisconsinite from Middleton.
Assembly Bill 499, authored by Representative Steve Kestell (R-Elkhart Lake) and Senator Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan), would ban both reproductive cloning where a cloned human embryo is brought to birth, and therapeutic cloning where a cloned human embryo is killed by extracting her stem cells. AB 499 prohibits neither embryonic stem cell research nor adult stem cell research. It prohibits somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT, the procedure used in human cloning.
All cloning results in the creation of a new living human embryo that, while genetically identical to another person, is a distinct human being, said Matt Sande, Pro-Life Wisconsins director of legislative affairs. Proponents of so-called therapeutic cloning hide this reality by resorting to verbal games. They say they oppose human cloning but support SCNT hoping no one will understand that SCNT is simply the scientific name for the cloning process, said Sande.
This bill in no way affects the legitimate medical research that is already going on in Wisconsin. At the same time, Gov. Doyle says this bill will interfere with his ability to invite new researchers into the state. It makes me wonder what type of researchers the Governor has in mind, said Sande.
