U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee - Larry E. Craig, Chairman - Jade West, Staff Director
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June 14, 2002

Americans Develop It; Someone Else Abuses It

Could Research Cloning in the U.S. Become Reproductive Cloning Elsewhere?

Cloning advocates want the government to permit research cloning so long as it does not become reproductive cloning. But can we restrict reproductive cloning while permitting research cloning? As the world leader of technological and scientific innovation, the United States has an added obligation to ensure that innovations are developed and used responsibly. However, with innovation, we often see a two-step pattern:

1. Americans develop it. The United States invests large amounts of capital, knowledge, and manpower to develop a new technology. Without American investments, the technology's worldwide advancement would be severely hindered, perhaps nonexistent.

2. Someone else abuses it. American technology becomes available in countries that do not respect our laws. Eventually, these countries use our technology in ways and for purposes that we did not originally intend.

We have seen the pattern repeatedly.

Computer Software

1. Americans develop it. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's latest data, American computer research and development (R&D) performance in 1997 was $8.9 billion purchasing power parity (PPP); the European Union (EU) was a distant second, spending $2.9 billion PPP; and Japan came in third at $1.1 billion PPP. (1) Separately, the National Science Foundation (NSF) reports that in 1997 and 1999, the United States spent $7.2 billion and $10.9 billion on software R&D, respectively. (2)

2.Someone else abuses it. Many countries allow American software to be sold and circulated in ways completely contrary to U.S. laws. The Business Software Alliance calculates that least 25 countries have piracy rates above 66 percent.

Pharmaceuticals

1. Americans develop it. The United States is the world's leader in pharmaceutical research and development, investing $21 billion in pharmaceutical research in 2000 as determined by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. No other country comes even close to this level of investment. According to a European pharmaceutical trade group, the entire European bloc forms the second largest pharmaceutical drug researcher, investing $15 billion in 2000. Japan comes in at a distant third, investing $5 billion in 1999. Because U.S. laws allow companies to patent pharmaceutical products for 20 years, American companies have an extra incentive to develop new medical technologies.

2. Someone else abuses it. Not all countries allow patent products; some only allow process patents. Hence, when an American pharmaceutical company invests millions of dollars to develop a new pharmaceutical drug, researchers elsewhere reinvent the wheel to produce the same drug using a hundred different processes. As a result, American companies lose potential sales and foreign pharmaceutical companies lack incentive to develop new drugs. (3)

Ballistic Missiles

1. Americans develop it. Americans are world leaders in ballistic missile technology, as evidenced by the great efforts other countries have put forth to obtain our technology. For example, according to a 1999 report by House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China, popularly known as the "Cox Committee," China has pursued and acquired advanced American technology over the past 20 years.

2. Someone else abuses it. The Cox Committee report also notes that China's acquisition of advanced American technology has created serious national security problems for the United States. Likewise, in September 1999, the National Intelligence Council's (NIC) "Foreign Missile Developments and the Ballistic Missile Threats to the United States Through 2015" reported: "By 2015, China will likely have tens of missiles targeted against the United States, having added a few tens of more survivable land- and sea-based mobile missiles with smaller nuclear warheads - in part influenced by U.S. technology gained through espionage" (NIC report, p. 9). Equally alarming, China is sharing missile technology with other countries that could use the technology against us. In his testimony on February 6, 2002, before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, CIA Director George Tenet noted: "Chinese firms remain key suppliers of missile-related technologies to Pakistan, Iran, and several other countries." Today, Iran falls under President Bush's "axis of evil" list.

Research Cloning

1. Americans develop it. In November 2001, researchers at Advanced Cell Technology in Massachusetts cloned a human embryo that lived through several cell-dividing stages. If the U.S. government does not completely ban human cloning, the American medical industry could master human embryonic cloning within a matter of years.

2. Someone else abuses it. Once cloning technologies become available throughout the world, scientists in certain countries may limit themselves only by the capabilities of the technology itself. In such countries, no American law or moral inhibition may stop use of cloning technology for the most extreme purposes, particularly if the standard of morality shown in other areas is any guide. For example:

    • Organ Donors on Death Row. According to recent articles by The New York Times, hospitals in a certain country pay court officials a nominal sum for the bodies of executed inmates, taking their organs and selling them for thousands of dollars to wealthy organ transplant patients. Under the scheme, the inmate is shot in the head and then immediately rushed into an unmarked ambulance where doctors remove his organs, sometimes while the inmate is still alive. (4)

    • Forced Abortions and Infanticide. In the same country, family planning laws call for forced abortions and forced sterilizations; informants are paid to uncover "unauthorized" pregnancies and target "illegal" babies for extermination. (5) In a different country, prison guards force prisoners to take abortion shots, and if the baby is born, they force the prisoners to kill it. (6)

If the United States develops cloning technology, other countries will eventually obtain the technology. Do we want other countries to have access to cloning technology? If a country forces sterilizations and abortions upon its citizens or quietly harvests organs from Death Row inmates, what will they do with cloning technology? Will they have any moral inhibition to stop reproductive cloning? Are we willing to find out? Are we willing to take that risk?

Notes

1. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, ANBERD Database, March 2000.

2. National Science Foundation, Science and Engineering Indicators 2002, Appendix Table 4-31.

3. India allows process patents but not product patents. They have 20,000 different drug manufacturers and produce 202 different copies of Ciprofloxacin and 117 copies of Norfloxacin, according to the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI)'s 34th Annual Report 1999-2000, p. 9. Also, Indian pharmaceutical research is only 0.3 percent of the amount spent on pharmaceutical research in the United States, based on 1999-2000 data for R&D expenditures from OPPI's website (www.indiaoppi.com/researchchart.htm).

4. "Execution in China, Through a Brother's Eyes," The New York Times, March 11, 2001, and "On Death Row, China's Source of Transplants," The New York Times, October 18, 2001.

5. Hearing before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, June 10, 1998, "Forced Abortion and Sterilization in China: The View from the Inside", Opening Statement by Subcommittee Chairman Christopher Smith, pp. 4 & 5.

6. "N. Koreans Talk of Baby Killings," The New York Times, June 10, 2002.

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