Louisiana Rejects Funding Therapeutic Cloning

by Kevin McGill, AP, PressDemocrat: An issue that has roiled Louisiana's Legislature for years came to an unusually quick conclusion Tuesday when the state Senate, without debate, voted to ban government funding for what is sometimes called "therapeutic cloning." Attempts in past years to outlaw the practice have been narrowly defeated in the Senate after bitter debates pitting religious conservatives, who say it creates and destroys human life, against scientists and advocates for people who have diabetes and other diseases, who say the process could lead to treatments and cures.

State Sen. Dan Morrish, R-Jennings, who won 36-0 approval of the bill by Rep. Cameron Henry in less than a minute, said banning the funding - without criminalizing the process itself - helped mollify opposition, although he added that many in the scientific community were "not ecstatic" about the bill. . . . Tuesday's vote was the last major legislative hurdle for the bill to ban funding. Henry, R-New Orleans, had already won passage in the House. It still needs a routine House vote on minor Senate language changes and then it goes to Gov. Bobby Jindal, who supports it. . . . [Read More]

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