New Jersey Legislature passes law to allow cloning human embryos

Published: 2003-12-18

TRENTON, N.J. (CNS) -- The New Jersey Assembly Dec. 15 narrowly approved legislation that will make it the second state to encourage cloning human embryos and destroying them for medical research on their stem cells. Gov. James E. McGreevey has promised to sign the bill, previously approved by the Senate, into law. Richard Doerflinger, deputy director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, said the legislation was "deeply disturbing" and more extreme than any other cloning law in the nation, including the human embryonic cloning-for-research legislation passed in California in 2002. New Jersey's Catholic bishops strongly opposed the legislation, saying the only way to obtain embryonic stem cells for research "is to kill the living human embryo." "We believe it is more important than ever to stand for the principle that government must not treat any living human being as research material, as a mere means for benefit to others," the bishops said in a joint statement last February, when the bill had passed in the Senate but was still pending in the Assembly.

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