Senate Democrats voted against Amendment that would have banned certain human-animal hybrid experiments.
Senate Bill 1260 “Endless Frontier Act” was on the docket for final vote. Senate democrats voted against a proposed amendment to the bill which in turn bans certain kinds of animal/human hybrid tests. The amendment was dubbed the Braun amendment, as this proposal was brought by Republican Representative of Indiana. Tally for vote resulted in 48-49.
The bill aimed at highlighting the ethical concerns with the study of animal and human hybrid chimeras. Penalties for such research efforts could have led to $1 million in fines and up to ten years in prison. Senator Braun stated “Human life is distinct and sacred, and research that creates an animal-human hybrid or transfers a human embryo into an animal womb or vice versa should be completely prohibited”
The Endless Frontier Act was introduced to the Senate floor by S. Chuck Shumer back in April and has received over 600 proposed amendments to various items in the bill. This bill also had continuous oversight three committees; Commerce, Science, and Transportation. This bill will allow an expenditure of $110 Billion over the next five years for “basic and advanced research”, and this bill establishes a “Directorate for Technology and Innovation in the National Science Foundation (NSF) and establishes various programs and activities”
This piece of legislation did not receive much media coverage or attention. The only voices of opposition for this bill was propagated by Republican Senators. James Lankford of Oklahoma commented “We shouldn’t need to clarify in law that creating animal-human hybrid or ‘chimeras’ is ethically unthinkable”