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Monitoring Stem Cell Research 
considered multiple and conflicting bills. In all, 133 separate bills 
were introduced on these subjects. (See overview in Chart II and 
specific provisions in Chart III). 
Although state legislatures have addressed regulation of 
research on the unborn for 30 years, the more recent technologies are 
being debated within a new context. Pro-life and pro-choice 
advocates are aligning in unusual ways. Unlike the clear line of 
demarcation between the groups on the issue of abortion, some pro- 
choice advocates oppose all forms of human cloning® aind some pro- 
life advocates support so-called “therapeutic” cloning.^ It would 
seem that these unique alliances might allow more fruitful policy 
discussions. However, despite agreement across traditional 
boundaries on the substance of particular bills, some of the new 
alliances break dovm because the sponsors of the bills include 
preambles that evince either pro-life or pro-biotechnology sentiments 
that go far beyond the substance of the bills themselves. This is a 
new development in the policy considerations related to human 
conceptuses. The legislators themselves are acting like lobbyists by 
including within their bills language espousing a particular position 
that goes far beyond the bills’ actual legal substance.® Some bills 
seem to be driven more by political posturing than by an attempt to 
actually get legislation enacted to deal with the issue at hand. 
This paper surveys the state law landscape by analyzing 1) 
existing laws with implications for reproductive cloning, therapeutic 
cloning and embryo stem cell research, 2) proposed bills addressing 
those technologies, and 3) potential constitutional challenges to the 
laws. 
I. The Existing Legal Framework 
A. Existing Bans on Cloning 
1. The Restrictions 
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, 
Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin. 
® See , for example, Nigel Cameron and Lori Andrews, "Cloning and the 
Debate on Abortion,” Chicago Tribune . August 8, 2001, at 17. 
^ Orin Hatch, for example. 
® See Section n, infra . 
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