Washington, DC: Congressman Ron Paul today introduced legislation that prohibits federal funding for cloning and cloning research. The “Human Cloning Prevention Act of 2001″ effectively ends taxpayer subsidies for private companies and other organizations involved in human cloning experiments.

“Thomas Jefferson admonished against forcing citizens to pay for practices they abhor,” Paul stated. “Many Americans strongly oppose cloning on moral grounds, and they should never be forced to pay taxes to subsidize such contentious and divisive research.”

“Much of the cloning research to date has been at least partially paid for by taxpayers,” Paul continued. “Cloning would not be the pressing issue it is today if the federal government had not funded it. The practical benefits of cloning are very hard to predict, so companies have difficulty finding sufficient private funding for their research. I don’t want those companies soaking the taxpayers when the private market won’t support their activities.”

“The existing ban on federal funding gives taxpayers insufficient protection,” Paul concluded. “Under current law, organizations involved in cloning still can still receive tax dollars for other research. Since money is fungible, every federal dollar given to such organizations frees up another dollar for cloning research. This legislation will end all taxpayer funding for any company that engages in cloning.”

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