The Hindu : International : Cloning incompatible with human dignity: U.N.

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Thursday, Mar 10, 2005

International

International

Cloning incompatible with human dignity: U.N.

UNITED NATIONS, MARCH 9. The General Assembly has approved a declaration urging U.N. member-States to ban all forms of human cloning.

By a vote of 84-34, 37 abstaining and 36 absent, the 191-nation Assembly yesterday acted on the recommendation of its Legal, or Sixth, Committee to adopt the text, called the U.N. Declaration on Human Cloning.

The appeal said cloning was incompatible with human dignity. Many Islamic nations were among those abstained. New Delhi, Moscow, Paris and London deplored the situation in which no consensus cold be reached.

The Costa Rican envoy, Bruno Stagno Ugarte, praised the vote as a ``historic step'' which recognised that therapeutic cloning involved the creation of human life for the purpose of destroying it. Sichan Siv, the U.S. envoy, spoke briefly welcoming the declaration. The declaration, negotiated by a Working Group last month, also banned ``genetic engineering techniques that may be contrary to human dignity.''

Exploitation of women

It called on states ``to prevent the exploitation of women in the application of life sciences'' and ``to protect adequately human life in the application of life sciences.''

Those who voted for the declaration — which is not legally binding on member states — welcomed it as a clear expression of the ethical norms that should guide scientific research.

South Africa, which abstained, said it understood therapeutic cloning to be aimed at protecting human life and not to be, therefore, inconsistent with the declaration.

The U.S., which voted for the declaration, said the Bush administration's position remained the same as it had recently expressed in the Sixth Committee.

The U.S. position paper said it supported a total ban on human cloning. It added, however, ``Any ban on human cloning should explicitly state that it does not prohibit the development of cell and tissue-based therapies based on research involving cloning technology to produce DNA molecules, organs, plants, tissues, cells (other than human embryos), or animals (other than humans).'' — UNI

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