House of Representatives - June 21, 2005

Leave a good legacy: Stop Cloning Now

Madam Speaker, 

Every Member of this body is mindful of his or her legacy, and that is good.

There is an issue facing this Nation that should cause us all to consider that legacy carefully. The issue is human cloning, and it is closer to reality than we think. We learned that from Korean scientists last month, but we have the ability to stop it here in America before it is too late.

So Members of this body should ask themselves, Do you want your legacy to be that we stood by as scientists started cloning human beings in America? 

Members leaving this body after next year should ask, Do you want to tell your grandkids some day that you had a chance to act to stop cloning but did nothing?

If we do nothing, Madam Speaker, cloning will come, and this Congress will be judged not by job numbers or a national energy plan or highway dollars, but by our failure to stop human cloning. 

I do not want that on my conscience; no one does, but our lack of action will make us responsible for its arrival.

Let us leave a good legacy, a legacy that guards the uniqueness of life. 

Let us act to stop human cloning.