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From the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/24/politics/24CLON.html January 24, 2002 Some for Abortion Rights Lean Right in Cloning Fight By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 — As co- author of the updated "Our Bodies, Ourselves," the guidebook to women's sexual health that has been a staple of college dormitories for decades, Judy Norsigian is accustomed to being labeled not just a liberal, but a radical feminist. But there is one issue on which Ms. Norsigian is comfortably aligned with conservatives: human cloning. Ms. Norsigian opposes cloning, either to make babies or to create embryos that might be used to treat disease. She fears the science will place an undue burden on the women who donate their eggs for the experiments. "This is very much a woman's issue," Ms. Norsigian said. "I'm trying to get the word out to the world that there is a very strong pro-choice liberal contingent that believes there is something wrong with embryo cloning." As the Senate prepares for hearings on Thursday on whether to restrict cloning, the fight against the research is creating unlikely alliances on Capitol Hill. Until now, the debate has been portrayed as a classic left-right clash, pitting patients' advocates and scientists who see cloning as a means to cure disease against religious leaders and conservatives who oppose the research because human embryos, which they regard as human life, are destroyed by the experiments. But as Ms. Norsigian's views illustrate, the cloning controversy is far more nuanced than that. Some people on the political left oppose cloning both for research and reproduction. In so doing, they have aligned themselves with a man many of them did not vote for, President Bush. They include women's health advocates, environmentalists, the writer Norman Mailer, the sociologist Todd Gitlin and academics like Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, a scholar of women's history at Emory University, and Benjamin Barber, a noted political theorist at the University of Maryland. Those interviewed said they were not opposed to embryo research per se, but were wary of biotechnology and cautious about genetic tinkering. Mr. Mailer called it "playing in the foothills of Creation." "I think a lot of people are looking for a place to stand which, in the highest sense of conservativism, preserves some sphere of life," said Mr. Gitlin, a professor of culture, journalism and society at New York University who, along with the others, signed a statement circulated by Jeremy Rifkin, a longtime critic of biotechnology. There is nearly universal opposition on Capitol Hill to cloning for reproduction, so the debate that begins Thursday in a Senate subcommittee hearing will turn primarily on whether scientists should be permitted to clone embryos to obtain stem cells. Scientists hope such cells can be used to treat diseases like diabetes and Parkinson's. In July, the House passed legislation, backed by President Bush, that would ban cloning for any reason. In the Senate, similar legislation has been introduced by Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas. But Mr. Brownback's bill is about to face competition. Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, is preparing to introduce legislation that would ban only reproductive cloning. Senator Tom Daschle, Democratic of South Dakota and the majority leader, has said the Senate will vote on cloning in March. So proponents and opponents are pulling together their coalitions. Daniel Perry, who as executive director of the Alliance for Aging Research, a patient advocacy group, is a strong proponent of research cloning, says the issue requires "looking past simplistic liberal versus conservative labels" to how people view biotechnology. "If you are optimistic about the daily revelation of new tools and new insights into biology, if you see that as an upward march toward a release of suffering, you will" favor cloning for research, Mr. Perry said. Opponents, he said, "see it as people losing control to scientists and other technocrats." Mr. Perry expects some conservatives to join his cause, just as they did in last summer's debate over embryonic stem cell research. Representative Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat who is co-chairwoman of a congressional caucus devoted to increasing awareness of diabetes, said some of her conservative colleagues were rethinking their views on research cloning. "You say cloning and you have this image of people being cloned," Ms. DeGette said. But views change, she said, "when you actually talk to people about the scientific technique, and how this is an extension of stem cell research." Opponents of cloning, however, appear to be ahead in forming a liberal- conservative coalition. When Mr. Rifkin, the biotechnology critic, sent his letter seeking support for a cloning ban, he enlisted the conservative journalist William Kristol to do the same. Mr. Kristol's letter was signed by conservative notables, among them two scholars, Francis Fukuyama of Johns Hopkins University and Robert P. George of Princeton University, who have since been named to President Bush's Council on Bioethics. Mr. Rifkin characterized his list of 68 signatories as "the who's who of the progressive and left community." The issue appears to have created a split in the women's movement. Some reproductive rights advocates and the Women's Health Network, a Washington advocacy group, support a moratorium on research cloning, though not an outright ban. But the Society for Women's Health Research strongly supports research cloning. Two major groups, Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women, have yet to take a position. "It reminds me a little of the pornography debates, where you had definitely two very strong camps within feminism," said Alice J. Dan, director of a federally financed Center of Excellence in Women's Health at the University of Illinois. She signed Mr. Rifkin's letter. As for Ms. Norsigian, who has spent decades arguing for the right to an abortion, she is now arm in arm with people like Richard Doerflinger, an official of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. "I think it's great," said Mr. Doerflinger, who is opposed to abortion. "I had a little joke with them," Ms. Norsigian said. "I said, `You know, this may be the only issue on the face of the earth we ever agree on.' " Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes. 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