washington

Professional organizations representing US biomedical researchers launched a concerted attack last week on proposed cloning legislation as debate began on two bills in the Senate.

The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) described one of the bills, written by Republicans, as “damaging to worthwhile research”. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) argued against any legislation, favouring a voluntary moratorium.

On 2 February, Senators Dianne Feinstein (Democrat, California) and Edward Kennedy (Democrat, Massachusetts) introduced a bill that would enact a ten-year moratorium on cloning for reproductive purposes, although allowing the cloning of human embryos that are not implanted. Breaches would be punished by civil fines.

The following day, Senators Christopher Bond (Republican, Missouri), Bill Frist (Republican, Tennessee) and Judd Gregg (Republican, New Hampshire) introduced a bill that would place a permanent ban on all forms of human cloning — including the cloning of human embryos that are not implanted. This bill bans “taking the nuclear material of a human somatic cell and incorporating it into an ooctye from which the nucleus has been removed or rendered inert and producing an embryo”. Breaches would be punished by up to ten years in prison and civil fines.

In defending the Democratic bill, Feinstein argued that “the key is not to stop the technology [but] to stop the implantation of the embryo produced by this technology in a human uterus”. She added that “virtually all the scientific community supports Feinstein-Kennedy and opposes Bond-Frist”.

Frist argued that his bill would not impede research, but would prevent the “creating of warehouses of human embryos solely for research, and ultimately destruction”.

More than 70 groups signed a letter sent by the AAMC on Monday (9 February) to senators urging them to avoid legislating, and seeking instead a voluntary five-year moratorium on research. The proposals in Congress “would have a chilling effect on vital areas of research that could prove of enormous public benefit,” said the letter. It argued that the Food and Drug Administration's plan to police cloning through existing regulations on biological products “effectively protects the public” (see Nature 391, 318; 1998).

In a separate letter to Senator Connie Mack (Republican, Florida), the American Association for Cancer Research urged a 45-day delay on any legislative activity on cloning.