Governments Jockey for Position on Resumed UN Cloning Debate

By C-FAM Staff | 2003

     (NEW YORK – C-FAM) Even though the formal debate on an international convention against human cloning will not resume at UN headquarters until late September, intensive behind-the-scenes negotiations have already begun, with opposed camps seeking to gain the support of undecided nations mainly from the developing world.

     The cloning debate is split between the French and German position, which calls for a partial ban on cloning, and the position of countries such as Costa Rica, the Philippines, the United States, the Holy See, Spain and Italy, which seek a comprehensive ban on all forms of human cloning. The Franco-German position would outlaw cloning humans for live-birth purposes, but would not outlaw cloning humans to be used and destroyed in medical research. A vote on this issue was postponed last year when it appeared that momentum was building against the Franco-German position.

     In anticipation of the renewed debate, Germany has begun circulating a new proposal that would create a framework for two separate conventions, a universal convention against cloning of humans for reproductive purposes, along with another convention against the cloning of humans for research, which individual nations could choose to "opt into." Although this initiative is meant to address countries' concerns about research cloning, it would actually seem to establish the international legality of research cloning, since the procedure would be legal unless nations specifically chose to "opt into" the second convention.

     Also this week, the Holy See released a statement outlining its reasons for seeking a comprehensive ban on human cloning. The Holy See maintains its support for "the advancement of human biological sciences and agrees with the procurement of human stem cells," but argues that this research should be carried out on "adult stem cells" that "contain a great scientific promise" without raising the ethical questions surrounding the harvesting of stem cells from cloned embryos.

     The Holy See also said, "No one should ever do evil in order to achieve a good. When, in an effort to advance human science or to help human beings in need, one faces a choice between an unobjectionable means, such as 'adult' stem cells, and a means that is universally recognized as raising profound ethical questions, such as 'research' cloning, prudence dictates choosing only the unobjectionable means. Therefore, even those who do not share the view that the cloned human embryo has full human dignity should still be opposed to all forms of human embryonic cloning."

     A number of countries that do recognize the dignity of human embryos, including Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Colombia, still have not endorsed the proposal for a comprehensive ban. If these countries adopt the Franco-German position, they would be siding with the world's most ardent supporters of research that destroys human embryos, including Great Britain, Israel, Singapore and China.

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