Senate passes cloning policy

The Indiana Senate unanimously passed a bill banning human cloning Monday -- amended with input from IU researchers. The measure, proposed by Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, declares cloning human embryos to be against public policy.\nBut the proposal won't be a barrier to research at IU.\n"I'm for research," Miller, also a registered nurse, said. "I'm just not for the wanton creation and destruction of life."\nThe bill, designated Senate Bill No. 268, defines human cloning as "the use of asexual reproduction to create or grow a human embryo from a single cell or cells of a genetically identical human." The bill would prohibit any entity associated with the state of Indiana, including "state educational institutions," from participating in "human cloning activities." \nBecause IU receives state money, it would have to abide by the restrictions. Violation of the bill carries a class D felony charge -- a six-month to three-year prison sentence and up to a $10,000 fine -- and mandates that the medical license board revoke the license of any hospital or doctor found to have knowingly participated. \nMiller cited the February recommendation of a United Nations committee to ban human cloning.\n"I think people across the country and across the world oppose the cloning of human beings," she said. \nMiller said she began working on legislation to ban human cloning since Dolly the sheep made headlines in 1996. \nIU administrators are happy with the bill that passed the Senate, but were not so optimistic about the proposal in its original form.\n"It would have created a great deal of confusion about what research could be done in Indiana," said J.T. Forbes, IU's executive director of state relations.\nThe text of the original bill did not include sections defining stem cells nor did it make allowances for embryonic stem cell research already legal under federal regulations. \nBut with input from IU Bioethics Center Director Eric Meslin and associate university counsel, Miller amended the bill to include such clarifications.\n"Whenever I have a bill that has a lot of interest groups, I always try to bring them all in for drafting amendments," Miller said.\nWorking on the amendment to the bill was a delicate task, Meslin said in an e-mail.\n"Given that the bill includes a provision to put researchers in jail if they conduct prohibited research, it was important to be absolutely clear about what the bill was trying to permit and what it was trying to prohibit," he said.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael \nZennier at mzennie@indiana.edu.\nForbes said IU supports a ban on human cloning and that the bill, if passed into law, would affect none of IU's current research efforts.\n"The bill still allows us to do stem cell research in accordance with applicable federal law," he said.\nMeslin, Forbes and Miller all agreed that the bill will help life sciences research in Indiana, rather than hinder it.\nThough the senate passed SB 268 by a 48 to 0 vote, it still has a long way to go before it becomes law. It must next go to the Indiana House and be subjected to three readings and a final vote. If the House passes the bill with no amendments, it then moves on to Gov. Mitch Daniels for approval.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.