But this time, pro-life legislators were ready. Problems arose when the legislators, quite understandably, asked these gentlemen to define their terms. Suddenly the biotechnology representatives began contradicting themselves and looking very uncomfortable. But when a legislator took him at his word and offered to ban the cloning of human embryos for research purposes, Johnson objected. The effect was to convince the legislators that destructive research on some kinds of human beings were indeed being contemplated.
Human cloning produces a human embryo.
A pro-life state like Pennsylvania would not want to engage in such mandated destruction, which is the moral equivalent of coerced abortion. In fact, Pennsylvania has already made its policy choice in this regard. As part of its abortion statutes, Pennsylvania has long treated any nontherapeutic experimentation on human embryos as a third-degree felony. To be consistent at all, the state must extend the same respect and protection to human embryos produced by cloning. It is especially interesting that the two biotechnology witnesses praised Pennsylvania as a leader in biotechnology research.