January 9, 2003 - Washington, DC

Religious Freedom Coalition chairman William J. Murray announced today his full support of the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003 (HR-234). The author of the bill is Congressman Dave Weldon (R-FL) who is a medical doctor by profession.

In presenting the bill to Congress Weldon said, "human cloning is baby manufacture. Any attempt at human cloning, for whatever purpose, is a gross form of human experimentation that the American people oppose."

Weldon forcefully stated, "Human cloning hasn't cured any diseases, it will commercialize women's eggs and wombs, it poses serious risks to the cloned child to be, and violates human dignity. Indeed, those who perform experimental research cloning will only make reproductive cloning easier, and increase the likelihood that even more rogue scientists will produce cloned babies."

During the 107th Congress, Weldon’s almost identical legislation was supported by the President. In March of 2002 Dr. Weldon and RFC chairman William Murray attended a press briefing in the White House in which President Bush condemned cloning in the strongest possible terms and gave his complete backing to the anti-cloning legislation.

Murray also ridiculed the Raelians for their "clone" announcement: "The fact that an atheist cult owns a cloning laboratory is reason enough to ban cloning worldwide."