BOND, ASHCROFT SEND SIGNAL IN BILL: DON'T CLONE HUMANS

Missouri's two U.S. senators oppose human cloning and want to ban federal funding of human cloning research.

Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond introduced a bill Thursday to permanently ban the use of federal money for any project that involves human cloning or human cloning research. Sen. John Ashcroft is a co-sponsor of the bill. Both are Republicans.

Federal law bans the use of federal money for human cloning. But that measure is set to expire at the end of September.

"I want to send a clear signal," Bond said from his Washington office. "This is something we cannot and should not tolerate."

Bond said, "The creation of a human being should not be for spare parts or as a replacement."

Bond said there are some aspects of life that should be off limits to science. He said human cloning amounts to "playing God."

Bond's legislation comes on the heels of a recent announcement that scientists cloned an adult sheep in Scotland.

The Vatican wants to ban human cloning, contending that people should be born "in a human way."

President Clinton has asked a bioethics advisory commission to review the implications of cloning technology.

Two Cape Girardeau ministers expressed concern about the possibility that man could make a genetic copy of another human being.

The Rev. Randy Cartwright of the First Assembly of God Church said human cloning could open a Pandora's box of problems that society can't yet fathom.

God created the human body so people can reproduce, he said.

"We may be able to reach a point through cloning where we have no individuality," he said.

The Rev. Ron Watts of La Croix United Methodist Church said cloning raises serious questions. Christians, he said, believe that God is the creator of life. "As Christians we believe we are made in the image of God."

Modern technology raises all kinds of ethical questions, he said. "Sometimes technology is a curse as much as a blessing."

Watts said that the human body is more than flesh and bone; it has a soul and that can't be cloned.

Biology professor Allen Gathman of Southeast Missouri State University agreed there are ethical concerns. "Why would you want an identical twin of yourself?" he asked.

Gathman said a clone would have organs that could be transplanted into the other person and not be rejected by the body's immune system.

Gathman said technically there would be little difference in cloning sheep and humans.

"We are at a point where it is conceivable for somebody to do it," he said.

Gathman doesn't want Congress to ban federal funding for all cloning research. Some genetic engineering research can be beneficial, he said.

"We have to be responsible, but I hate to see politicians who don't have the expertise making rules about what kind of inquiries can be done," he said.