Jun 21, 2001 (AFX-UK via COMTEX) -- WASHINGTON (AGX) - The Bush administration announced yesterday it favors the most far-reaching of several competing bills to make human cloning a federal crime, the Washington Post reported.

The bills would outlaw not only the creation of cloned children, but also the creation of cloned human embryos for research.

The administration's position, presented by Deputy Secretary for Health and Human Services Claude Allen to a congressional subcommittee, echoes that of many religious organizations, the newspaper said.

However, such a total ban on all human cloning research is opposed by other ethicists and many biomedical researchers, who believe that studies on "stem cells" offer the best chance for developing new therapies for a variety of debilitating diseases.

Allen said the administration has concluded that any law allowing the creation of cloned human embryos would be problematic because some scientists might be tempted to go ahead and let them mature into babies. "It's too easy, too simple to cross that line," Allen said.

The hearing also dealt with the separate question of whether any scientists, even those using only their own private funds, should be allowed to create cloned human embryos from scratch for research.

Allen's remarks were the first clarification of what President Bush meant by his previous, general assertions opposing human cloning, the report said.

From Healthy.net