08 March 2005

(Technique incompatible with protection of life, U.S. says)

By Judy Aita
Washington File Staff Writer

United Nations -- The U.N. General Assembly has adopted a declaration calling on nations to prohibit all forms of human cloning.

The nonbinding United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning was negotiated by committee and approved in February after efforts to draft a binding international treaty failed.  The main point of contention in the debate was so-called therapeutic cloning, in which human embryos are cloned to obtain stem cells for use in medical experiments and then discarded.

The 191-nation assembly adopted the declaration March 8 by a vote of 84 to 34 with 37 abstentions and 36 absentees.

The declaration, proposed by Honduras, calls for countries to prohibit all forms of human cloning, positing that such procedures are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life. Negotiated by the General Assembly's Sixth Committee (a legal panel), the declaration also calls for the adoption of measures necessary to protect human life in the application of life sciences and for prohibiting genetic-engineering techniques that might be contrary to human dignity.

Carolyn Wilson, the U.S. representative on the General Assembly's Sixth Committee, said in February, "In calling for a ban on all forms of human cloning, member states of the United Nations have noted the incompatibility of all human cloning techniques with human dignity and the protection of human life."

Wilson expressed U.S. support for that position and for the declaration’s call on nations to take further legislative steps toward banning cloning.

The declaration, she said, "is an important step on the path to achieving a culture of life by ensuring that scientific advances always serve human dignity, not take advantage of some vulnerable lives for the benefit of others.”

"Medical research must proceed, but it must proceed in an ethical manner so that women are not exploited, the needs of developing nations for treatment of tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS are not neglected, and no human life is ever produced to be destroyed for the benefit of another," Wilson said.

Costa Rican Ambassador Bruno Stagno Ugarte, a major supporter of the declaration, said the vote was a historic step that recognized "that therapeutic cloning involves the creation of human life for the purpose of destroying it."

The debate over the past four years has been deeply divided, with many countries supporting cloning for therapeutic research to discover relief or cures for diseases and illnesses, such as Alzheimer's, cancer and spinal-cord injuries.

France and Germany first introduced the issue in 2001 seeking a binding treaty banning the cloning of human beings.  In 2004 the United States, Costa Rica, and 61 other countries pressed to broaden the ban to all cloning, including therapeutic cloning.

Supporting a ban on cloning in his speech before the opening of the General Assembly in September 2004, President Bush said "because we believe in human dignity, we should take seriously the protection of life from exploitation under any pretext."