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Nebraska Family Council
1106 E Street, Lincoln, NE 68508-3511

Phone: 402-477-3191
Toll Free: 1-888-777-5188

Ban On All Human Cloning

2008 update on LB 606


LB 606 (Introduced by Sen. Brad Ashford)

The Nebraska Legislature moved legislative bill 606 to the final round of debate and it was signed by the Governor to become law. This bill bans all human cloning from being preformed in any state facility or with state funds. The Stem Cell Research Act also limits all state facility and state funds be used for research which does not involve the destruction of a human embryo.

This bill does not stop researchers from using federally approved embryonic stem cell lines for research. LB 606 does not put any prohibition on private research however, we are not aware of any private labs doing this type of research in the state.

Sen. Steve Lathrop, who led the compromise between the pro-life community and the University of Nebraska Medical Center, stated this bill will:

  • Create a stem cell research cash fund that will provide matching funds up to $500,000 a year to be used for nonembryonic stem cell research.


  • Prohibit the use of state facilities and funds to create a human embryo and destroy it for research purposes.


  • Prohibit state facilities and state funds to be used for the creation of a human embryo by somatic cell nuclear transfer or human cloning.



We worked on this bill and supported it. We feel it is a step in the right direction for Nebraska.


Ban on All Human Cloning - History

Conception of a child for the sole purpose of doing research on that unborn child and taking its life is unethical and immoral. Nebraska Family Council has worked to stop this type of medical research.

Legislative bill 606 confirms that human life is special and limit's research that treats human life as a commodity. The Nebraska Legislature moved legislative bill 606 to the final round of debate and was signed into law by the Governor.

To give you an idea how difficult it has been to pass a ban on cloning this is the recent history of this debate.

In 2006 the Nebraska Legislature debated a Ban on All Human Cloning. The debate did not result in a ban being passed.

In 2004 there was a disappointing vote in regard to a Ban on All Human Cloning. The Nebraska Legislature in a motion to invoke cloture (stop a filibuster) failed to do so by one vote, with four key pro-life senators refusing to vote.

Then, Senator Adrian Smith, had 35 co-sponsors on LB 602; meaning 35 senators signed on to the bill in support. After over 6 hours of debate on this bill Senator Smith asked for a vote to break the filibuster. It takes 33 votes to invoke cloture, break a filibuster and stop debate so a vote can be taken on the bill itself. Sadly, the opposition was able to peel away four of Senator Smith's co-sponsors on the bill. Thus we had only 32 Senators vote for cloture. If only one more Senator had voted for cloture we would have had the 33 votes needed to stop the filibuster and move the bill on.

It is a sad day in our country when we need to debate the morality of bringing about conception for the sole purpose of doing reasearch on an unborn child and taking its life. It is even sadder that we have such a difficult time passing a law to restrict this type of research.