Republicans Reject 21st Century Research

Republicans defeated a Democratic bill making it illegal to use cloning technology for starting a pregnancy or generating a cloned human being. Republicans claim their opposition was due to the bill not also covering a ban on cloning technology for the purpose of stem cell research.

Republicans are concerned embryos will be cloned for experimentation and then destroyed. Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pennsylvania, characterized the scenario as assigning these poor cloned embryos a “death sentence.” However, Pitts fails to disclose the fact embryos are presently destroyed daily for research, and their destruction is perfectly legal.

I guess, by Republican rationale, if an embryo is cloned and destroyed twice, it must be doubly bad and should be stopped. Regardless, what is certain is that the Democratic Congress will inevitably have to drag Republicans kicking and screaming into the 21st century.