February 2008 / Bott Radio Network in Nebraska broadcasts public policy updates with area pro-life leaders who worked to ban human cloning
February 2008, Bott Radio Network in Nebraska broadcasts a series of public policy updates featuring the pro-family organization leaders who worked to pass a ban on human cloning for the purpose of embryonic stem cell research.
After months of political wrangling by a Nebraska pro-life coalition, lawmakers and lobbyists for the University of Nebraska, agreement was reached on a bill that bans the use of public funds and facilities to create or clone human embryos for the purpose of destroying them after research . . . a practice bluntly referred to by pro-life defenders as “clone and kill”. The Nebraska law LB606 also creates an advisory committee to establish a grant process for non-embryonic stem cell research.
Chip Maxwell, executive director, Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research was among pro-life coalition members interviewed on Bott Radio Network in Lincoln, Nebraska. Maxwell’s comments heard exclusively on the BRN outlets in Nebraska included an explanation of the human cloning issue. Human Cloning is done for the purpose of extracting human embryonic stem cells for research which are subsequently destroyed.
When asked in the BRN interview why some researchers want to conduct human cloning to harvest embryonic stem cells, given the fact that therapies already exist with non-embryonic stem cells, Maxwell at one point said,
. . . “People are finally starting to ask the question, well, what about this now, a human embryo, is that a human being? Because if it is, maybe we shouldn’t destroy it for research and if it’s wrong to destroy it five days after fertilization for research, maybe it’s not right to destroy it five weeks or five months after fertilization as well.”
Maxwell explained in the BRN interviews that adult stem cell research has been used successfully for decades with the same results as embryonic stem cells harvested from cloning, adding that stem cells from a newborn’s umbilical cord are also a perfectly viable method for retrieving stem cells. Chip Maxwell was a part of the pro-life coalition that worked to shape Nebraska legislation in 2008 to ban public funding of human cloning. You can hear interviews on the Family First website at www.familyfirst.org and clicking on "Issues" and then the specific interview you wish to hear.
The cloning measure advanced to the floor of the Nebraska Unicameral for debate on February 26th, 2008. It was voted into law!
Shown in the Bott Radio Network studio in Lincoln is Julie Schmidt-Albin, Executive Director, Nebraska Right to Life.
Al Riskowski, Executive Director of the Nebraska Family Council.
Greg Schleppenbach, State Director (NE), Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities being interviewed on the BRN Nebraska network. Schleppenbach was the lead negotiator with lobbyists for the University of Nebraska and lawmakers to inevitably pass the partial cloning ban for Nebraska.
Dave Bydalek, Executive Director, Family First (state affiliate of Focus on the Family) interviewing Chip Maxwell, February, 2008. Each person depicted here was a participant in the state-wide coalition to ban human cloning, Legislative Bill 660.
Chip Maxwell, Executive Director, Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research.