In their coverage of the cloning debate in Massachusetts, the local media seem to be overlooking a critical fact.

Proponents of embryonic stem-cell research and human cloning are rushing to pass Senate Bill 25 without allowing enough time for unsuspecting legislators and the public to grasp the long-range implications of the bill. In an effort to assuage potential alarm, they are making the misleading assertion that the bill does not promote human cloning.

Since that argument was first made, The Pilot has denounced their deceptive claim, the Massachusetts bishops called their statement false, and Gov. Mitt Romney, in a March 6 Boston Globe opinion piece, said “Despite the comforting assurances of its supporters, [Senate Bill 25] will not ban human cloning.”

Still, proponents of that false claim are getting a mostly free ride in the secular media. Most coverage avoids the issue all together.

The Globe at least briefly took up the issue in a March 3 story saying “The Pilot, the official newspaper of the Boston Archdiocese, published an editorial last week opposing the bill and saying it would lead to human cloning. Travaglini said yesterday that the bill explicitly bans human cloning.”

The simple fact is: not only does Senate Bill 25 not ban human cloning, it promotes it.

Somatic cell nuclear transplantation, the term used in Senate Bill 25 is, by definition, cloning. Whether the cloned embryos will be destroyed for experimentation or allowed to grow into a child depends only on the intention of those conducting the experiments.

If we are wrong, proponents of the bill should explain why. If we are right, the public has the right to know.