Topeka ? Legislation that would ban human cloning in Kansas was introduced today.

“Manufacturing humans is a terrible human rights abuse,” state Rep. Mary Pilcher-Cook, R-Shawnne, said.

Pilcher-Cook has signed up 48 co-sponsors to the bill, which would make it unlawful for any person or entity, public or private, to perform, attempt to perform or participate in human cloning.

She said the measure would also ban the same procedure used to produce Dolly the sheep, the first mammal created by cloning.

Also known as Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer or therapeutic cloning, Pilcher-Cook said it is the process of removing the nucleus from a human egg, and then transferring a nucleus from a somatic cell, or ordinary body cell, to the egg.

The bill is House Bill 2355.