The BDF-drafted “Cures Without Cloning” legislative package was sent to the desk of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal who signed the pro-life bills into law on June 25, 2008. The package including two bills — a human cloning funding ban, and an umbilical cord blood education bill.

1. Taxpayers will not fund clone and kill research in Louisiana. Because private investors dollars dried up around the nation due to the failure of embryonic stem cells to produce any therapies or cures, tax-funding has become the lifeblood of clone and kill “research.” By prohibiting use of all federal or state tax-funding of human embryo cloning in Louisiana, Louisiana law now follows Arizona in putting up an effective road block to this human rights violation (with six other states criminalizing the human cloning procedure).

La. State Representative Cameron Henry (R-Jefferson) succeeded in getting House concurrence on H.B. 370 after the Senate unanimously approved the bill with a minor technical amendment clarifying that the Bush lines will not be affected.

2. Louisiana will fund and promote umbilical cord blood banking. The second piece of the 2008 pro-life package is the Umbilical Cord Blood Education Act (H.B. 861 by Rep. Walker Hines, D-New Orleans), a bill that promotes ethical and effective stem cell research and therapies using stem cells from “afterbirth” which is usually tossed in the garbage after the birth of a child.

Bioethics Defense Fund lawyer Dorinda Bordlee testified before the Senate Finance Committee in support of appropriations to build the infrastructure for ethical stem cell research and treatments using umbilical cord blood. The final 2008 Louisiana budget includes $1 million in towards this life-affirming stem cell effort.

For more information contact BDF Senior Counsel Dorinda C. Bordlee at dbordlee@bdfund.org.