On the morning of March 9, President Obama signed an executive order on stem cell research that also included a statement on human cloning. Many media outlets quickly released a story with headlines like that of the Associated Press, “Obama Calls Cloning ‘Dangerous, Profoundly Wrong.’” On the same day, at 1:40 p.m, Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, was asked about the cloning issue and he said, “I think the executive order—I don’t have it in front of me—simply bans human cloning.”
Commenting on this is Catholic League president Bill Donohue:
“Media reports which said that President Obama banned human cloning were wrong. So was White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
“What Obama did was ban cloning for human reproduction. Which means he left the door wide open for the federal financing of human cloning that does not result in having the embryo implanted in a mother’s womb. In other words, he did not rule out cloning human beings for research purposes. So it may be possible to clone human embryos and then cut them up, if desired.
“I was misled on March 9. While I criticized the president for permitting the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, I commended him for his ban on human cloning. As it turns out, my congratulatory remarks were without merit. I therefore rescind my commendation.”
