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Foes of Total Human Cloning Ban at the UN on the Defensive

Debate To Resume October 20-21

NEW YORK, October 9, 2003 (c-fam.org/ LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute reported Thursday that parties at the UN seeking only a partial ban on human cloning have adopted a number of new tactics to influence a vote they seem increasingly likely to lose.

The UN debate pits two opposing positions, those countries that seek a total ban on all forms of human cloning, and those countries that seek a partial ban that would outlaw "reproductive cloning," cloning for life-birth purposes, but not "therapeutic cloning." Therapeutic cloning is the creation of cloned human embryos in order to use them -- and destroy them -- for the purpose of medical research.

The total ban, introduced by Costa Rica and strongly supported by countries like the United States, Spain, Italy, the Vatican and the Philippines, has now been co-sponsored by 52 countries. Many other countries have signalled privately that they will support a total ban when a vote is taken.

As the debate has proceeded over the past two weeks, countries in which therapeutic cloning is legal, even government-financed, such as the United Kingdom, Singapore and China, have found themselves increasingly isolated. Only 18 countries, the few countries in which therapeutic cloning is legal, plus a handful of others, including Canada, have co-sponsored the partial ban.

Interestingly, due to internal unrest over the issue, the signature of Germany was missing on its own proposal. LifeSite reported previously that the German parliament was incensed that its representatives at the UN were not backing a total ban on cloning despite the country's own anti-cloning laws.

In response to this momentum for the total ban, a group of pro-therapeutic cloning scientists and lawyers have made a highly unusual request, asking the United Nations to have the International Court of Justice in the Hague intervene in the debate. The group wants the Court of Justice to guide the deliberations through the issuance of an "advisory opinion." It appears likely that the group believes the Court of Justice will condemn reproductive cloning, but not therapeutic cloning. One of the members of the group told Reuters that "It is urgent that the public understand and differentiate between the cloning charlatans and those scientists doing critical research that might lead to cures of deadly diseases."

Another tactic appears to be to portray the debate as stymied because the countries seeking a total ban are unwilling to compromise. According to Reuters, "A group of 40 [sic] nations, led by Costa Rica and the US and assembled with the help of US-based anti-abortion groups, insisted on a treaty banning both the cloning of humans and 'therapeutic' or 'experimental' cloning…", thereby resulting in "deadlocked" negotiations that are "headed for collapse."

However, far from being "deadlocked," negotiations appear to be heading in favour of a comprehensive ban, as more and more countries co-sponsor the Coast Rican proposal. There will be two more days of debate, scheduled for October 20 and 21, after which a vote will most likely occur.

See http://www.c-fam.org/

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