UNITED NATIONS, October 15, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The United Nations debate on banning all forms of human cloning is to take place October 21-22. Samantha Singson the International Affairs Officer for Campaign Life Coalition will be there to lobby delegates to support the ban. Singson told LifeSiteNews.com that the final vote on the ban is expected on October 29. The debate centers around a motion put forward by Costa Rica which asks for a comprehensive ban on cloning humans as opposed to competing suggestions which would see human cloning permitted but those cloned human beings killed for research before birth – referred to as therapeutic cloning. Last year Canada thwarted efforts to bring about a final vote on the cloning ban. Despite the fact that Canada had agreed to support the total ban motion and claimed that its own reproductive technologies legislation banned all forms of cloning (loopholes in the legislation however allow for so called therapeutic cloning), its delegates abstained from a vote which would have allowed a final vote to be held. Singson notes that had the vote been held at the time a comprehensive ban on human cloning would have passed.
With major pharmaceutical companies and other interested parties lobbying heavily against the comprehensive ban on cloning, Singson requested prayers to support the pro-life lobby efforts. Jhw