Feinstein/Hatch Would Permit Egg Buying for Cloning
I just found another area of dishonesty in S. 812, the bill that should be called "The Human Cloning Authorization Act." Section 2(e) is entitled Voluntary Donation of Oocytes, meaning eggs. Indeed, Section II(e)(2) states:
Prohibition on Purchase or Sale--No human oocyte or unfertilized blastocyst [meaning cloned embryo] may be acquired, received, or otherwise transferred for valuable consideration if the transfer affects interstate commerce.Sounds good. Ah, but what the good senators take away with one hand, they give with the other. Section 2(C)(ii) restricts the meaning of "valuable consideration," to wit:
The term "valuable consideration" does not include payments...to compensate a donor of one or more human oocytes for the time or inconvenience associated with such donation.So, the eggs themselves could not be purchased, but the woman egg donor could be offered plenty of money as to compensate her for the discomfort, inconvenience and time she spends in being super-ovulated to produce the eggs that cannot be purchased. Can we say, distinction without a difference?
I plan to write a more detailed analysis of S. 812 soon.
Labels: S. 812. Egg Purchasing
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 3:52 PM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
Wesley, I was Googling for some info on France's cloning laws for some other discussion, and came across your excellent 2004 column Clone The French on NRO.
I think the arguments you lay out against doing SCNT for medicinal purposes are super strong, and they will win out in the end, especially as ESCR is eclipsed by adult stem cell progress. I don't think that outlawing non egg and sperm conception will make it harder to stop SCNT.
At the end of that article, you want to seperate yourself from the religious luddites, but yet it is you who seems to be taking a fundamentalist position by withholding support for an egg and sperm law if it would not also ban ESCR. It seems like very religious concern for what you could insist are 12 day old laboratory experiments. After reading that column, I'm convinced that ESCR for medicibe could be stopped on its own merits (or lack of), without having to rely on the specter of reproductive cloning.
Lately you've been saying that if we don't outlaw them both at the same time, the research will go on until reproductive cloning is legalized, but I think that though it might go on for a few years after banning non egg and sperm conception, it would more easily be stopped afterwards, on its own uselessness and costs.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home