Human Cloning
United Nations Condemns Human Cloning - 2005
On March 8, 2005 the plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly ratified the anti-cloning Declaration recommended by its legal committee by a vote of 84-34. Six additional nations asked to be added to the yes vote for a total of 90. The American press paid little attention to the news.
This significant vote came eight years after the cloning of Dolly the sheep and merely weeks after the British Government granted Dolly's cloner Ian Wilmut a license to clone human embryos for research.
Critics of the anti-cloning Declaration downplayed its significance saying it was not a convention. A convention is a treaty binding the parties who sign it to introduce laws to implement what it says. Nonetheless the anti-cloning Declaration speaks for the UN and the international community.
Excerpts of the anti-cloning Declaration include:
"(b) Member States are called upon to prohibit all forms of human cloning inasmuch as they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life" and
"(c) Member States are further called upon to adopt the measures necessary to prohibit the application of genetic engineering techniques that may be contrary to human dignity."
A copy of the United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning is found
here:
Click here for U.N. Declaration on Human Cloning
The record of the vote was as follows:
In favour: Afghanistan, Albania, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Bahrain,
Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam,
Burundi, Chile, Comoros, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador,
El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Germany, Grenada,
Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan,
Kenya, Kuwait, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Malta, Marshall
Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia (Federated States of), Monaco,
Morocco, Nicaragua, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal,
Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Sierra
Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Sudan, Suriname, Switzerland,
Tajikistan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor- Leste, Trinidad
and Tobago, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania,
United States of America, Uzbekistan and Zambia
Against: Belarus, Belgium, Brazil,
Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, China, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon,
Iceland, India, Jamaica, Japan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic,
Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand,Norway, Republic
of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Tonga and United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Abstentions: Algeria, Angola,
Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Barbados, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape
Verde, Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Israel,
Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal,
Oman, Pakistan, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Somalia,
South Africa, Sri Lanka, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine,
Uruguay, Yemen and Zimbabwe
Subsequently, the delegations of Antigua and Barbuda,
The Gambia, Kyrgyzstan, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Nigeria, Peru and
the Russian Federation informed the Secretariat that they had intended
to vote in favour; the delegation of Greece informed the Secretariat that
it had intended to vote against; the delegations of Botswana and Mali
informed the Secretariat that they had intended to abstain.
President Bush Supports Ban on Human Cloning - 2002
On April 10, 2002, President Bush called on the U.S. Senate to
approve a total ban on the cloning of human embryos. If the Senate
failed to pass the pending Brownback-Landrieu bill, America faced
the widespread destruction of nascent human life including the
prospect of “human embryo farms”. Senator Tom Daschle, leader of
the Democrats supported legislation that would permit the cloning of
human embryos.
President Bush lead the effort to defend human life saying, “All of us
here today believe in the promise of modern medicine. We’re hopeful
about where science may take us. And we’re also here because we
believe in the principles of ethical medicine. As we seek to improve
human life, we must always preserve human dignity. And
therefore, we must prevent human cloning by stopping it before it
starts.”…
"We live in a time of tremendous medical progress. “Scientists first
cracked the human genetic code—one of the most important
advances in scientific history,” and “are developing new diagnostic
tools so that each of us can know our risk of disease and act to
prevent them.”
“Our age may be known to history as the age of genetic medicine, a
time when many of the most feared illnesses were overcome. Our age
must also be defined by the care and restraint and responsibility with
which we take up these new scientific powers.”
“Advances in biomedical technology must never come at the expense
of human conscience. As we seek what is possible, we must always
ask what is right, and we must not forget that even the most noble
ends do not justify any means.”…
“Human cloning is the laboratory production of individuals who are
genetically identical to another human being. Cloning is achieved by
putting the genetic material from a donor into a woman’s egg, which
has the nucleus removed. As a result, the new or cloned embryo is an
identical copy of only the donor.”
“One biotech company has already began producing embryonic
human clones for research purposes…. Others have announced
plans to produce cloned children, despite the fact that laboratory
cloning of animals has lead to spontaneous abortions and terrible,
terrible abnormalities.”
“Human cloning is deeply troubling to me, and to most Americans.
Life is a creation, not a commodity. Our children are gifts to be loved
and protected, not products to be designed and manufactured.
Allowing cloning would be taking a significant step toward a society
in which human beings are grown for spare body parts, and children
are engineered to custom specifications, and that’s not acceptable.”
“I believe all human cloning is wrong, and both (reproductive and
research cloning) forms of cloning ought to be banned for the follow-
ing reasons. First, anything other than a total ban on human cloning
would be unethical. Research cloning would contradict the most
fundamental principle of medical ethics, that no human life should be
exploited or extinguished for the benefit of another…. Second,
anything other than a total ban on human cloning would be virtually
impossible to enforce. Cloned human embryos created for research
would be widely available in laboratories and embryo farms. Once
cloned embryos were available, implantation would take place"
" Third, the benefits of research cloning are highly speculative.
Advocates of research cloning argue that stem cells obtained from
cloned embryos would be injected into a genetically identical individual
without risk of tissue rejection. But there is evidence, based on animal
studies, that cells derived from cloned embryos may indeed be
rejected.”…
“The National Institutes of Health is funding a broad range of animal
and human adult stem cell research. Adult stem cells which do not
require the destruction of human embryos... yield tissues which can
be transplanted without rejection..... Therapies developed from adult
stem cells are already helping suffering people.”
“I support increasing the research budget at NIH, and I ask Congress
to join me in that support. I strongly support a compre-hensive law
against all human cloning, and I endorse the bill—wholeheartedly
endorse the bill— sponsored by Senator Brownback and Senator
Mary Landrieu.”
