Bush Urges Complete Ban on Human Cloning

"Life is creation, not a commodity," Bush said today in a speech to a group of doctors, scientists, lawmakers, religious activists and disabled people.

Bush spoke up in order to urge the Senate to pass a broad ban on cloning. The U.S. House of Representatives last July passed a ban on all human cloning.

Many senators oppose using cloning to create human beings, but support using the process to create embryonic stem cells that may be used for research and the potential treatment of diseases.

The use of embryonic stem cells is controversial because extracting the cells kills a living human embryo, a tiny life. Bush decided in August that federal funding would be permitted only for stem cell cultures that then existed and were made from embryos that were to be discarded by fertility clinics.

The Senate is expected to debate the cloning ban in the weeks ahead.