The Law:

• A prohibition on the buying, selling, and patenting of human organisms at any stage of development.

Why We Need Legislative Action:

• Scientists who are eager to create and exploit human embryos and human fetuses as research tools or sources of spare parts also seek to patent and profit from their “inventions.”
   
• On December 30, 2004, a leading researcher from the University of Pittsburgh applied for a patent on the process and product of human cloning. In other words: he wants to create cloned human embryos and own the rights to cloned human persons.
   
• At present, the Weldon Patent Amendment prohibits the use of federal dollars for patents on human embryos, human fetuses, or human beings at any stage of development. But this amendment is not a permanent law but an annual part of the appropriations bill. And it does not prohibit the buying and selling of human embryos.

What the Law Does:

• It establishes a clear moral principle: No human life should be created, used, and exploited as a commodity. Human beings are not laboratory inventions or things for our use.
   
• It shuts down the economic incentives and private market for creating human embryo farms.
   
• It prevents the slippery slope from embryo destruction to mass fetal farming.
   
• It makes the Weldon amendment permanent.

What the Law Does Not Do:

• The law does not affect past, present, future, or existing patents on embryonic or non-embryonic human stem cell lines.
   
• It does not affect past, present, future, or existing patents on genes, cells, organs, animals, plants, or other combinations of living matter that are not human organisms.
   
• It does not affect commerce, incentives, profit-making, or technology transfer that involves embryonic or non-embryonic human stem cell lines, animal stem cells, animal clones, genes, cells, or organs.