By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Bush supports outlawing all human cloning research in the United States, the White House said yesterday as a congressional panel opened hearings on the matter.
"The president will work with Congress" on a federal statute, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. "The president believes that no research - no research - to create a human being should take place in the United States."
Fleischer spoke at his daily press briefing just as the House Energy and Committee subcommittee on oversight and investigations was hearing expert testimony on human cloning.
"The president believes that the moral and ethical issues posed by human cloning are profound and cannot be ignored even in the quest for scientific discovery," Fleischer said.
"The president believes that any attempt to clone a human being would present a grave risk both to the mother and the child. He opposes it on moral grounds."
Fleischer noted that Bush supports former President Clinton's 1997 ban on federal funds for human cloning research.
