The US government at the UN this week came out strongly in favor of a total ban on human cloning. The US delegate told the UN Member States, "Human cloning is an enormously troubling development in biotechnology. It is unethical in itself and dangerous as a precedent."
In a closed-door meeting yesterday at UN headquarters in New York, the US objected to human cloning on four grounds, calling it an "unethical experimentation on a child-to-be." The US paper also said cloning would deliberately saddle the clone with the "genetic makeup of a person who has already lived," that cloning would make women's bodies a "commodity" and would take "a giant step toward a society in which life is created for convenience."
UN Member States began discussions this week to draw a road map, which may lead to a worldwide ban on "reproductive cloning." "Reproductive cloning" is that which would attempt to create a grown human being that would be an exact replica of another person. The proposal that may come before the UN would leave open the possibility of "therapeutic cloning," which is a creation of a human embryo for experimentation and destruction.
The usual political splits over social issues may not hold up in the current debate. The generally socially left-wing European Union does not have a unified position on cloning. Many EU countries have an outright ban on cloning for any purpose, including Germany. It now appears the EU will not negotiate as a single voice.
Spain, which occupies the EU presidency for the next six months, joined the US in a strong statement against all types of human cloning. Spain's delegate said, "It is considered that a human being exists from the moment that a new unique and distinct genome arises, either different or identical to that of another human being. Spain believes that it is necessary to reach an agreement on the universal prohibition of the cloning of human beings"
The generally conservative Muslim states were mostly silent this week. Many said it was too soon for them to take a position and that their governments had not issued instructions on the cloning issue. Latin America was also mostly silent although Costa Rica and Colombia announced opposition to all human cloning.
The most startling statement of the week came from one of the UN' s own experts. Carmel Shalev made a strong statement not just for experimental cloning but also for reproductive cloning. She said a ban on reproductive cloning would violate the "right to science" and also the "right to found a family." Muslim delegates were especially unhappy that Shalev, an Israeli, was chosen as one of four UN experts when not a single expert on Islamic Sharia law was picked for the panel.
The Ad Hoc Committee will conclude talks on Friday and will resume in September. Serious negotiations on some kind of ban are expected to begin next year.
C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute)
1. mars 2002