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UNITED NATIONS, October 27, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Speaking at United Nations headquarters in New York last week, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations, addressed the General Assembly on the “International Convention Against the Cloning of Human Beings.” In the strongest terms, the Archbishop warned that “If the United Nations were to ban reproductive cloning without banning cloning for research, this would, for the first time, involve this body in legitimizing something extraordinary: the creation of human beings for the express purpose of destroying them.” He continued, “If human rights are to mean anything, at any time, anywhere in the world, then surely no one can have the right to do such a thing.”

He explained that “Human rights flow from the recognition that human beings have an intrinsic dignity that is based on the fact that they are human. Human embryos are human, even if they are cloned. If the rest of us are to have the rights that flow from the recognition of this dignity, then we must act to ban cloning in all its forms.”

While he acknowledged “the science may be complex,” he noted that the issue is “simple and straightforward”. He said, “If reproductive cloning of human beings contravenes the law of nature-a principle with which all delegations appear to agree-so does the cloning of the same human embryo that is slated for research purposes. A cloned embryo, which is not destined for implantation into a womb, but is created for the sole purpose of extraction of stem cells and other materials, is destined for pre-programmed destruction.”