The California Advisory Committee on Human Cloning is meeting next

Monday, May 15, 2000, at the Hiram Johnson Building Auditorium,
455 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.

The agenda distributed by Committee Chair George Cunningham states
that the "primary topic to be addressed at this meeting is the use
of cloning in infertility treatment." A public comment period is
scheduled at 2:15.

At least two of the scheduled speakers, attorney Mark Eibert and
bioethicist Bonnie Steinbock, are on record in support of human
cloning. (See below.)

This is the fourth meeting of the Human Cloning Committee, which has
been mandated by the California legislature to recommend whether the
state's moratorium on human reproductive cloning should be extended
past its expiration date of 2002. Comments by a number of Committee
members, and by the majority of invited speakers, indicate that the
Committee may be searching for ways to justify human cloning. Were
California to allow its moratorium to expire, it would put the state
dramatically at odds with moves to ban human cloning that are either
in effect or in legislative process in Japan, Canada, and many
European countries.

If you are planning to attend some or all of the meeting and would
like to coordinate with others on the Techno-Eugenics Email List,
or would like background information on the Cloning Committee,
contact Marcy Darnovsky, Contact us.

Advisory Committee on Human Cloning Agenda, May 15, 2000

9:00 am Introductions and announcements
9:15 am Ronald Harkey, CA Dept of Health Services
9:45 am Discussion and Questions
10:00 am Mark Eibert, Attorney
10:45 am Discussion and Questions
11:15 am Richard Chetkowski, MD, Fertility Specialist
11:45 am Discussion and Questions
11:15 am Richard Chetkowski, MD, Fertility Specialist
12:00 pm Lunch
1:00 pm Bonnie Steinbock, Bioethicist
1:45 am Discussion and Questions
2:15 pm Public Comments Period
4:00 pm Adjourn

To contact the Cloning Committee directly: George Cunningham, MD;
Department of Health Services, Genetic Disease Branch, Berkeley;
phone 510-540-2552; <gcunning@dhs.ca.gov>.

NOTES ON PRESENTERS:

Mark Eibert has written about cloning in the right-wing libertarian
Reason magazine. He is on a list of "prominent people who support
human cloning" compiled by the Human Cloning Foundation, a nonprofit
organization that does not reveal the names of its directors or staff.
According to the Human Cloning Foundation, Eibert is "currently
investigating the possibility of bringing a lawsuit to challenge
the constitutionality of California's" cloning moratorium.
See <http://www.humancloning.org>.

In his June 1998 article in Reason, "Clone Wars," Eibert characterizes
efforts even to regulate human cloning technology as an "unprecedented
governmental grab for power over both human reproduction and scientific
inquiry." He argues that "those who support laws to ban cloning…are
in effect urging the passage of a new eugenics law."
See <http://www.reason.com/9806/col.eibert.htm>.