RE: the latter portion of the article, there is an all out effort
spearheading the defeat of Majority Leader, Sen.Tom Daschle
(D-Iowa?Idaho?) in the next election by the republican party to regain
control of the Senate--Daschle has SERIOUS opposition by a favored
candidate in his home State!
Charlotte

On Wed, 10 Apr 2002 12:25:07 EDT [log in to unmask] writes:
> Bush Presses for Human Cloning Ban
>
> By SCOTT LINDLAW
> .c The Associated Press
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush is pressing the Senate to approve
> legislation that would outlaw the cloning of human beings for use in
> research
> and treatment of diseases.
>
> Bush long has opposed human cloning. When he announced his decision
> in August
> to restrict but not forbid federal financing of so-called embryonic
> stem cell
> research, he said: ``We recoil at the idea of growing human beings
> for spare
> body parts or creating life for our convenience.''
>
> On Wednesday, Bush was speaking to 175 doctors, scientists,
> lawmakers,
> religious activists and disabled people to mobilize bipartisan
> support behind
> a complete ban on cloning. Aides said Bush's speech would be
> ``reflective''
> on the ethical issues that cloning poses.
>
> The cloning legislation joins a growing pile of bills that Bush
> favors and
> that have passed the Republican-controlled House but stalled in the
> Democratic-controlled Senate.
>
> In recent days Bush has stepped up his calls for action on an array
> of bills
> pending in the Senate, including measures that would increase energy
> conservation and exploration, grant him expanded powers in
> negotiating trade
> pacts and help businesses get terrorism insurance.
>
> Last July, the House passed a ban on all human cloning - the
> production of
> embryos that are the genetic twin of a donor. Many in the Senate
> oppose using
> cloning to create human beings, but support using the process to
> create
> embryonic stem cells that may be used for research and the potential
> treatment of many diseases.
>
> The use of embryonic stem cells is controversial because extracting
> the cells
> kills a living human embryo. Bush decided in August that federal
> funding
> would be permitted only for stem cell cultures that then existed and
> which
> were made from embryos that were to be discarded by fertility
> clinics.
>
> The movement for a ban got a significant boost Tuesday when Sen.
> Bill Frist,
> R-Tenn., said he would support the cloning ban legislation, which
> the Senate
> is expected to debate in the weeks ahead. Though not a surprise, the
> announcement from Frist, a heart-transplant surgeon, is important
> because his
> views on medical topics are respected by many in Congress.
>
> Creating a human embryo ``for reason of experimentation leads to
> destruction
> of that embryo and to me that is morally unacceptable,'' Frist told
> reporters.
>
> ``I'm an advocate for embryonic stem cell research and stem cell
> research -
> tremendous promise for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, for the various
> diseases,''
> he said Wednesday on CBS' ``The Early Show.'' ``But that is not the
> cloning
> of human embryos. I'm for cellular cloning, RNA cloning, DNA
> cloning, but not
> for cloning of embryos that have to be destroyed''
>
> Bush holds a similar view and welcomed Frist's support, the White
> House said.
>
> Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., told an anti-cloning rally on Capitol
> Hill
> Wednesday that a ban on human embryo cloning was ``clearly a
> winnable
> issue.'' Standing before a stack of petitions with 400,000
> signatures for a
> cloning ban, Brownback said that ``cloning is wrong, period.
> Creating human
> life to destroy it is wrong.''
>
> The cloning debate gained impetus in November when a Massachusetts
> company,
> Advanced Cell Technology, said it had cloned a human embryo for the
> first
> time. The company wants to extract stem cells from cloned embryos
> that could
> be used to grow healthy organs for patients.
>
> Scientists also are trying to see whether adult stem cells can serve
> as
> all-around repairmen in the body, thus avoiding killing embryos.
>
> The public overwhelmingly opposes scientific experimentation on the
> cloning
> of human beings, according to a new poll that also suggests public
> opinion is
> mixed on stem cell research.
>
> Nearly four out of five people opposed cloning, while one-third of
> those
> polled were against federal funding of stem cell research, according
> to the
> poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
>
> The poll of 2,002 adults was taken Feb. 25-March 10 and had an error
> margin
> of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
>
> Also Wednesday, Bush was mending fences with Bill Simon, the
> California Republ
> ican gubernatorial candidate whom the White House quietly opposed
> last fall.
> Simon was getting the royal treatment from the Bush administration,
> also
> meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney and a battery of Cabinet
> officials.
>
> Simon was a reminder of how the unusual White House strategy of
> injecting
> itself into primaries can backfire: Bush associates urged Simon to
> step aside
> in favor of the White House's favored candidate, former Los Angeles
> Mayor
> Richard Riordan.
>
> But Riordan lost the primary to Simon last month, leaving the White
> House in
> the awkward position of embracing a candidate it opposed.
>
> Bush immediately called Simon after the primary, and has pledged to
> help him
> raise money for the campaign against the incumbent governor,
> Democrat Gray
> Davis. The White House is ``totally committed'' to getting Simon
> elected
> governor, Simon spokesman Jeff Flint said.
>
> Simon was using a political appeal to renew his plea for
> presidential help -
> that if he can oust Davis, it will greatly help Bush's own
> re-election
> prospects in 2004.
>
> Bush lost California by 13 percentage points to Al Gore in 2000.
>
>
>    04/10/02 11:34 EDT
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to:
> mailto:[log in to unmask]
> In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn

----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn