U.S. Urges U.N. to Ban All Human Cloning

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Countries opposed to all forms of human cloning – the United States among them – warned on Friday that cloning to create stem cells for research could lead to the exploitation of women, and they urged U.N. members to vote to ban it.

U.S. Special Adviser Susan Moore joined Kenya and Nigeria in arguing that if therapeutic cloning were permitted for medical research, it could create a market for the sale of human eggs, a market in which poor women could be exploited.

"The international community must act now … to send a clear message that human cloning is an affront to human dignity that cannot be tolerated," Moore said.

The speakers were among some 25 who addressed the U.N. General Assembly’s legal committee on the second of two days of debate. The committee is considering two competing resolutions.

Costa Rica’s draft calls for a treaty banning all cloning, and Belgium’s draft calls for a treaty banning the cloning of babies but allowing countries to decide on using embryos for research, which many scientists believe may lead to new treatments for diseases. No date has been set for a vote.

Ittiporn Boonpracong, minister counselor in Thailand’s U.N. mission, said the international community has reached consensus on the need to ban reproductive human cloning and should move ahead with it.

However, he said Thailand believes each member state should decide for itself whether to ban therapeutic cloning or to permit it under strict regulations.

Sweden’s U.N. ambassador, Anders Liden, also said it should be up to each country to decide whether to ban or to regulate other forms of cloning.

"It is not possible today to anticipate what research will lead to future treatment of diseases or new medicines. For Sweden, freedom of research is essential, and it must always be carried out within ethical boundaries," he said.

By contrast, neighboring Norway opposes therapeutic as well as reproductive cloning out of "respect for the inviolability of life," Asmund Eriksen, an adviser in the foreign ministry, told the committee.

Kenya’s U.N. ambassador, Judith Mbula Bahemuka, said her country supports a total ban on all forms of human cloning.

"This touches on human dignity and our human rights – a universal and core value of humanity and one of the pillars on which the United Nations was founded," she said. "History will judge us very harshly should we fail to uphold this dignity."

Last November the legal committee voted 80-79 to delay consideration of a cloning treaty for two years, a move requested by Islamic nations. In December, the General Assembly decided without a vote to delay the discussion of a global treaty for one year.

Costa Rica’s U.N. Ambassador Bruno Stagno Ugarte has said his resolution has 62 co-sponsors, including the United States, but "the divide that was there is still there."

Belgian diplomat Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve has said his country is aware that cloning "is a very difficult problem" and said his supporters "still hope to engage the other side in a dialogue to find some way out to a consensus."