In his reply, Kmiec noted that President Obama used the phrase “human reproductive cloning” in a manner “virtually identical” to the way it is used by the National Academies of Science (NAS).
Conceding that George’s definition is “better” in terms of its “explanatory power,” he said “I am less certain that the President warrants criticism for his usage of terminology accepted by the NAS.”
“I have already raised my disagreement with the President. I take it you share in my dissent,” Kmiec wrote.
Replying to Kmiec, George again focused on Kmiec’s original statement:
“You said that President Obama prohibited cloning. That is what readers of Dan Gilgoff's interview were given to believe on your authority. It is what they will believe if you do not correct the record and provide an accurate account of President Obama's policy.”
He then presented six questions he requested Kmiec answer, which Kmiec did in his final e-mail.
Kmiec refused to grant that President Obama did not prohibit human somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), which George called “the scientific name for cloning.”
“While the administrative regulation remains to be drafted, there is no reason to believe based on what the President said that his ban on reproductive cloning would not include the process of SCNT where its intent was implantation and gestation,” he wrote.
Answering another of George’s questions, Kmiec said he “suspects” that the president supports cloning to create living human embryos which will be destroyed to produce stem cells for scientific research.
However, he said that until the administrative regulations are written, it is possible they will permit research only on embryos resulting from infertility or in-vitro fertilization procedures, embryos “that would otherwise be discarded.”
George’s final reply said he was glad Kmiec conceded that President Obama’s decision allows funding for material produced by destroying cloned human embryos, calling that “the most important fact” about the policy.
(Story continues below)
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Agreeing with Kmiec that support should be built for preferring adult stem cell research, he said Kmiec should ask the president about his revocation of a 2007 Bush executive order promoting research on non-embryo-destructive sources of stem cells. George warned that many opponents of “reproductive cloning” nonetheless “have no problem with the industrial production of human embryos for research in which they are destroyed.”
George then invited Kmiec to debate the question “Did President Obama Prohibit Human Cloning” either at Princeton or Pepperdine, saying such an event would advance public understanding.
“It is very important for our fellow citizens to know whether or not President Obama prohibited human cloning, and to understand exactly what his policy is on the creation of new human beings by SCNT and other methods to be destroyed in federally funded biomedical research in the embryonic stage of development.”