Lincoln, NE (LifeNews.com) -- The Nebraska legislature gave final approval to a bill on Tuesday that would prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to pay for either kind of human cloning. Afterwards, the legislature sent the measure to Republican Gov. Dave Heineman, who signed it immediately.

LB 606 would ban the use of public funds to create human embryos for the purpose of destroying them for research, but wouldn't prohibit either type of human cloning.

Julie Schmit-Albin of Nebraska Right to Life said her group had hoped for stronger limits on human cloning but was satisfied with the measure that passed. She indicated her group would return to working on more limits on abortion.

Albin had previously said the pro-life group supports the bill even though it doesn't ban either reproductive or research-based cloning of human beings.

The measure was a compromise that Nebraska Right to Life initially indicated had problems, but was later changed to earn its support.

University of Nebraska Medical Center administrator Ron Withem told AP he was satisfied with the measure.

He indicated it was "a good compromise between those that want to see lifesaving research continue and those that have moral qualms about certain aspects of it."

Albin said the bill was a matter of accomplishing as much as possible without getting all of the limits the group supports.

"While bioethics is not an area that invites compromise, we acknowledge that we gain enough with LB606 to merit supporting it," she said. "This is one of those times where we can gain something or achieve nothing, and we chose the former."

She said her group opposed original wording that would have allowed scientists to clone and kill human embryos for research purposes.

"We vigorously opposed this 'clone and kill' language as it could have emboldened private-sector cloning labs to come into Nebraska, and we are thankful it was removed," Schmit-Albin said.

The measure also puts together a panel of scientists and medical school deans to award $500,000 in grants for non-embryonic stem cell research.

Related web sites:
Nebraska Right to Life- http://www.nebraskartl.org