Knights of Columbus Joins Call for Ban on Human Cloning

WASHINGTON, D.C., FEB. 5, 2003 (Zenit.org).- The head of the Knights of Columbus joined prominent religious, academic and public policy leaders in calling for a total ban on human cloning.

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Supreme Knight Carl Anderson joined the others at a Capitol Hill press briefing to sign «The Sanctity of Life in a Brave New World: A Manifesto on Biotechnology and Human Dignity,» produced by the Council for Biotechnology Policy.

The manifesto aims to provide a framework that protects the sanctity of life in the new biotechnology age, including the ban on human cloning.

Anderson said that «biotechnology holds great promise for humanity. But human cloning can only subvert this promise. Cloning cannot enhance human dignity; it can only negate it.»

Speculating that human cloning will lead to embryo farms for tissue harvesting, Anderson went even further, calling them «human embryo plantations, because cloning is really a new form of biotech slavery.»

Other signatories to the manifesto include former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop; Father Richard John Neuhaus of the Institute for Religion and Public Life; and American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Robert Bork.

Legislation has been introduced in Congress to ban all human cloning.

The 1.6-million-member Knights is the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organization.

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