Divided UN Panel Opposes All Forms of Human Cloning

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 2/18/05 | Irwin Arieff

[NormsRevenge]

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A deeply divided U.N. General Assembly committee adopted a nonbinding statement on Friday calling on governments to prohibit all forms of human cloning, including techniques used in research on human stem cells.

The assembly's legal committee voted 71 to 35 with 43 abstentions in favor of the proposal put forward by Honduras and backed by the George W. Bush administration.

The measure now goes to the full 191-nation assembly.

Islamic countries said they would abstain because there was no consensus. Opponents of the measure, like Britain, Belgium and Singapore, said the text would have no impact on their practice of co-called therapeutic stem cell research.

At the heart of the debate was medical research relying on therapeutic cloning, in which human embryos are cloned to obtain the cells used in the studies and are later discarded.

Many scientists say the technique holds out the hope of a cure for some 100 million people with such conditions as Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes and spinal cord injuries.

But the United States, Costa Rica and other governments have argued that they view this type of research, for whatever purpose, as the taking of human life.

Before adopting the text, the assembly's legal committee rejected amendments by Belgium that would have made the declaration more acceptable to stem cell research supporters.

The vote capped four years of deliberations on a global ban on the cloning of human beings. The discussions began with a 2001 proposal to draft a binding global treaty banning human cloning, which probably now will not occur.

'RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE'

That effort failed after the Bush administration fought to broaden the ban to all cloning of human embryos, including therapeutic cloning. The U.S. campaign ran out of steam last November when the legal committee remained deeply divided.

In its place, Italy proposed a nonbinding declaration calling on nations to pass laws "to prohibit any attempts to create human life through cloning processes and any research intended to achieve that aim."

Honduras then put forward a longer proposal urging U.N. member-states "to prohibit all forms of human cloning inasmuch as they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life."

"This declaration represents a significant step forward in advancing respect for human life," a coalition of U.S. groups opposed to abortion rights said after the vote. "Cloning opponents welcomed the U.N.'s resolution and look forward to member-states fulfilling their international obligations."

British delegate Gavin Watson said he voted against the text because it "could be interpreted as a call for a total ban on all forms of human cloning."

In a follow-up statement Britain's U.N. ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, blasted the statement as weak and called its backers intransigent.

"This is a weak, non-binding political statement. The number of states that failed to support it is greater than the number that backed it," he said.

"We have lost the opportunity for an international ban on the abhorrent prospect of reproductive cloning because of the intransigence of states whose action serves only to hold back medical research."

Singaporean Ambassador Vanu Gopala Menon, who also voted "no," told the committee it was unfortunate that a common objective of prohibiting human cloning "was hijacked in a misguided bid to widen this ban to include important research."

[NormsRevenge]

A cow peers through slats in a truck during transport. Australian scientists claimed a world first after cloning a cow using a new technique they said improves the chances of success.(AFP/File/Mychele Daniau)

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Meanwhile, Down under..

Australian scientists claim advance in cloning

AFP - Wed Feb 16, 6:44 PM ET

[Norman Bates]

I'm glad something is being tried. Too bad "the ends justify the means" people are out there in force, too.

[ASA Vet]

I'm still awaiting delivery of the Kobe Tai Clone I ordered.
If they don't hurry I'll be to old to care.

[SuziQ]

Too bad "the ends justify the means" people are out there in force, too.

Harvard Univ. and several bio-tech companies in MA are really pushing the 'theraputic closing'. They think somehow that creating an embryo just to kill it for it's stem cells is more moral than cloning a whole human being, for the same purpose.

They're seeing dollars floating in front of their eyes, supposedly from investors. If investors haven't ponied up on embryonic stem cell research yet, I don't think the cloning of embryos is going to make them any more excited. Investors want to see RESULTS, and that hasn't happened with embryonic stem cell research, though it IS happening with the use of adult stem cells.

[RobertMorrow]

H.R. 1146 will withdraw the USA from the United Nations’ madhouse/cesspool.
Go to: http://www.getusout.org/un/index.html . Then go lobby at http://www.conservativeusa.org/megalink.htm . Email President Bush at president@whitehouse.gov . White House comment line is 202-456-1111.
The United Nations is a corrupt disgrace and it is time for the USA to WITHDRAW from and defund the United Nations. Please tell your senators, congressmen and everyone you know to support H.R. 1146 which would WITHDRAW the USA from the United Nations, prohibit US funds going to the UN and prohibit US troops serving under UN command. H.R 1146 is the American Sovereignty Restoration Act.
The whole mission of the UN is to take power, money and national sovereignty from the USA. Thus the United States must withdraw from and defund the UN, a worthless organization, and if we go, if we are lucky, the whole thing will implode.