Baton Rouge, LA (LifeNews.com) -- A leading pro-life attorney is concerned that two of Louisiana's prestigious universities are considering engaging in human cloning. Dorinda Bordlee of the Bioethics Defense Fund wonders why the two educational institutions lobbied so vigorously against a measure banning all forms of human cloning.

Bordlee's national public-interest law firm has launched a post-legislative session educational campaign to let Louisiana residents know that two of the big universities in their state lobbied lawmakers against a human cloning ban.

For the third year in a row the two research worked with lawmakers to block the ban on both reproductive and research cloning. Bordlee suspects LSU and Tulane scientists hope to use human cloning to create embryos to be destroyed for their stem cells.

"If Tulane and LSU are planning to participate in the human rights violation of human cloning for destructive human embryo research, they will have to do so in the full light of day," Bordlee said.

"Louisiana citizens who want cures and not clones, and who support our beloved Louisiana universities deserve to know their plans," she added.

Concerned alumni of the two universities have paid for a large billboard that looms above the I-10 eastbound toward the Superdome and the LSU-Tulane medical parkway.

The billboard asks the question, "Are Tulane and LSU Planning on Cloning Human Embryos?," and directs viewers to learn more about the educational campaign.

Bordlee's group has also launched an email campaign targeting Tulane President Scott Cowen and LSU System President William Jenkins. The emails urge them to "stop any plans your university researchers may have to begin participating in [human cloning] research which creates cloned human embryos for the purpose of their destruction in experiments."

"[I]f they're going to start clone-and-kill research here in Louisiana, they're going to have to explain that to the public -- the same public that loves Tulane and LSU," Bordlee said.

"We love their football teams, we send our kids to their colleges -- and we deserve to know what their plans are," she concluded.

Related web sites:
Bioethics Defense Fund - http://www.bdfund.org