JERRY BEHN STATE SENATOR Twenty-fourth District Statehouse: (515) 281-3371 jerry.behn@legis.state.ia.us __ HOME ADDRESS 1313 Quill Avenue Boone, Iowa 50036 515-432-7327

The Senate State of Iowa Eighty-second General Assembly STATEHOUSE Des Moines, Iowa 50319

COMMITTEES Appropriations Ethics, Ranking Member Human Resources Judiciary Natural Resources and Environment State Government

February 22, 2007

Dear Editor

Last week the Iowa Senate passed, by one vote, legislation that removed Iowa’s ban on human cloning. Senate Democrats suggest that it really isn’t about human cloning but about therapeutic cloning, the difference being in how a cloned embryo is used.

The legislation, SF 162, lifted the ban on human cloning simply by creating two different categories of cloned embryos. I have been in the legislature just over 10 years and I know of no other place in the Iowa code where a specific scientific procedure, in this case somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), the scientific term for human cloning, is defined two separate ways when based on the end usage of its product.

Supporters of the bill claim this repeal is necessary so that research can be done on stem cells. Yet, scientists in this state can already do research on stem cells, both adult and embryonic stem cells.

Iowa’s current ban on human cloning, which I voted for, and which passed with bipartisan support in 2002, is just that -- a ban on cloning. It is silent on the issue of both adult and embryonic stem cell research. Our law has allowed researchers in Iowa to continue searching for answers to illnesses and disease.

The question, however, before the Senate last week was not about stem cell research, but whether Iowa will continue to ban human cloning or lift the restrictions. To say it is about stem cell research as Senator Rielly did in a recent column is just an attempt to try and pass a law by calling it something else.

Republican Senators are strong supporters of stem cell research, but not at the expense of creating law that might allow for the cloning of human beings for research purposes. As legislators our goal is to promote research that provides the most hope for life-saving cures and at this time it is unclear what life-saving benefits can be derived from the creation and destruction of cloned embryos.

Senator Jerry Behn

Senate District 24