CGS-authored

WASHINGTON - Congress is facing mounting calls from some unexpected quarters to halt medical research involving human cloning.

Since the US House approved a ban on both reproductive and therapeutic cloning last summer, the dynamic in the nation's capital has changed from one that pitted religious conservatives and antiabortion groups against scientists, biotechnology firms, and patient advocates. Now some environmentalists, feminists, and other activists are joining social conservatives in calling on lawmakers to put the laboratory work on hold.

A broad coalition of biologists, ethicists, public-health advocates, abortion proponents, and human-rights activists signed a letter to leaders of the US Senate this week, urging a total ban on cloning to make babies and an indefinite moratorium on the creation of cloned embryos for use in medical research.

''Human cloning could be a gateway to a frightening new kind of eugenics, where discrimination and inequality are permanently written into our genetic code,'' said Marcy Darnovsky, a spokeswoman for the Center for Genetics and Society, a group based in Oakland, Calif., that organized the 100 signers and produced the letter.

In the...