U.N. Agrees to Draft Declaration Over Human Cloning Ban
United Nation diplomats officially agreed Friday to use a draft declaration by Italy which prohibits ''the creation of human life through cloning'' as basis for discussions on a human cloning ban that would resume in February
United Nation diplomats officially agreed Friday to use a draft declaration by Italy which prohibits ''the creation of human life through cloning'' as basis for discussions on a human cloning ban that would resume in February.
The General Assembly's legal committee was headed toward an up-or-down vote between Costa Rica’s total human cloning ban and Belgium’s partial human cloning ban on its last day of meeting until next year but due to divisive stances it settled on Thursday evening for a compromise declaration that would contain language appeasing both sides.
Of the United Nations’ 191 members, Costa Rica and United States were among the 62 that supported a ban on all forms of human cloning, including reproductive, therapeutic, and research. Belgium’s proposed treaty, which agreed to ban cloning babies but allowed research cloning for stem cell research, had 22 supporters.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Italy’s draft declaration calls on all nations to "prohibit any attempt at the creation of human life through cloning and any research intended to achieve that aim."
The language of the declaration contains similar language to the speech President Bush made before the General Assembly in August when he urged “all governments to affirm a basic ethical principle: No human life should ever be produced or destroyed for the benefit of another."
While many would agree an embryo is human life, pro-life groups, especially those religious based, take it one step further and say personhood also begins at conception until natural death.
