US President Opposes Human Embryo Cloning

US President George W. Bush on Monday expressed his opposition to human embryo cloning, saying that the reported breakthrough by a Massachusetts research firm that the first human embryo was cloned was "morally wrong."

"The use of embryos to clone is wrong," Bush told reporters during a Rose Garden appearance after meeting two US aid workers released from Afghanistan.

"We should not, as a society, grow life to destroy it, and that's exactly what is taking place," he said.

Bush, who had stated his opposition to such research earlier, said that he has not changed his position.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said earlier on Monday that the work of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Massachusetts, said such work amounts to human cloning lays bare "the conundrum of scientific progress, where progress can also be measured in terms of how many lives will be taken to save a life."

"That's something the president has drawn a strong ethical line in the sand on and said that line should not be crossed," Fleischer said.

The spokesman urged the Senate to act on anti-cloning legislation passed by the US House of Representatives on July 31.

"The president hopes that as a result of this first crossing of the line and this first step into a morally consequential realm of creating a life to take a life in the name of science, that the Senate will act on the House legislation so that this procedure can be banned," Fleischer said.

On Sunday, Worcester, Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology Inc. announced that it had created human embryos through cloning. The company said that the purpose of such experiment is not to create a human being but mine the embryo for stem cells used to treat diseases.

(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2001)