Dover, Del., Feb 7, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Legislators in the Delaware House of Representatives yesterday failed to pass Senate Bill 80 that would authorize embryonic stem-cell research. Instead, they passed a severely reduced version of the bill, which removed all reference to human embryonic stem-cell research and the destruction of frozen in-vitro fertilization embryos.
The amendments also clarify the definition of "human reproductive cloning" to clearly ban any cloning that results in a human fetus or child for any purposes, and to close a loophole that would have allowed fetal farming.
According to sponsors, SB 80 was based on HR 810, Mike Castle’s bill now in the US Senate.
Several supporters, including sponsor Rep. Deborah Hudson, R-Fairthorne, said the bill’s references to embryonic stem-cell research were removed because of a powerful lobbying and advertising campaign that opposed the bill.