Calvin College professor of biology Hessel Bouma III has been working with students on the Calvin campus for almost 20 years. Now he's getting a chance to reach a new audience.

Bouma received an invitation yesterday from the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, asking him to speak to the Subcommittee on Technology as they hold a hearing on "Prohibition of Federal Funding of Human Cloning Research."

That hearing (which will be at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, July 22 in room 2318 of the Rayburn Building) will include discussion of a bill sponsored by Rep. Vernon Ehlers -- H.R. 922 (Human Cloning Research Prohibition Act).

Earlier this summer Bouma and Calvin colleagues John Hare and Ruth Groenhout (ethicists in Calvin's philosophy department) were asked by Ehlers (a former Calvin College physics professor) to review his legislative drafts, and the drafts of others, concerning human cloning. The trio responded to Ehlers with a three-page summary of their observations -- a summary which the committee felt was persuasive enough to warrant further discussion. Thus Bouma's invitation.

Bouma will have five minutes to present an oral summation of his testimony. The length of his written testimony, however, is unrestricted and will be entered into the official hearing record. Bouma's written testimony also eventually will be included on the committee's web page.

Excerpts of Hessel Bouma's testimony were included in the July 24, 1997 final edition of .Click the link and you will be transferred to the Post's opinion and editorial age. To read Bouma's complete testimony, go to the bottom of this page and follow the "oral summation" link.