skunk
Nov 19, 2004, 07:37 PM
http://nytimes.com/2004/11/19/science/20nationscnd.html?ei=5094&en=57a7f9aabf157b91&hp=&ex=1100926800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position=
U.S. Ends Effort at U.N. to Ban All Human Cloning
By WARREN HOGE
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 19 - Faced with polarizing division in the 191-member General Assembly, the United States abandoned a bid today that it had aggressively pursued to obtain a United Nations treaty banning all human cloning, including that done in the name of medical research.
The outcome - an agreement to come up with a nonbinding declaration against human cloning - fell far short of the American goal and represented a setback for President Bush. He called for a worldwide ban on all cloning when he spoke at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly in August and made limiting stem cell and other research known as therapeutic cloning an issue in his presidential campaign.
All 191 United Nations members are agreed on the need for a treaty that would prohibit cloning human beings, but they have been stalled for three years by sharp differences over whether to broaden the ban, as the United States wishes, to cover therapeutic cloning.
The push for a total ban has set the Bush administration against close allies like Britain and much of the world's scientific establishment, which contend it would block research on cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis and other conditions. The White House argues that enough stem cells from human embryos exist for research and that cloning an embryo for any reason is unethical.
Negotiations have been going on for more than a year in the General Assembly's legal committee, which draws up treaties, and a vote was scheduled for today on two competing versions with scant hope that the necessary consensus would emerge for an effective treaty.
The United States backed a resolution proposed by Costa Rica to outlaw all forms of human cloning, while opponents of such an absolute prohibition supported a Belgian measure banning reproductive cloning outright and offering nations three options for therapeutic cloning: outlawing it, putting a moratorium on the practice or regulating it through national legislation to prevent misuse.
Instead of proceeding to a showdown vote tonight, the committee agreed instead to take up a nonbinding declaration proposed by Italy with ambiguous language that avoided raising objections and to schedule meetings in February to shape the final wording. The Italians' proposal prohibits "any attempts to create human life through cloning processes and any research intended to achieve that aim."
Regardless of what language emerges, the result will be a declaration, not a treaty, which would have been the outcome had either the Costa Rican or Belgian versions been adopted, and nations will be under considerably less pressure to change their existing views on cloning.
"A declaration is important for what it's not," said Bernard Siegel, the executive director of the Genetics Policy Institute, who had lobbied against the American-led campaign. "It is not a treaty, it is nonbinding and it will have no chilling effect on therapeutic cloning, and stem cell research will advance. We consider this a triumph."
Adam Ereli, a State Department spokesman, acknowledged that a global ban would not now be adopted but said the administration still viewed the result as positive. "Obviously, we'd like to get a total ban," he said. "We recognize that that may not be possible right now. On the other side of the coin, you can also say that we have been successful in preventing any endorsement of cloning."
I guess it failed the Global Test.
U.S. Ends Effort at U.N. to Ban All Human Cloning
By WARREN HOGE
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 19 - Faced with polarizing division in the 191-member General Assembly, the United States abandoned a bid today that it had aggressively pursued to obtain a United Nations treaty banning all human cloning, including that done in the name of medical research.
The outcome - an agreement to come up with a nonbinding declaration against human cloning - fell far short of the American goal and represented a setback for President Bush. He called for a worldwide ban on all cloning when he spoke at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly in August and made limiting stem cell and other research known as therapeutic cloning an issue in his presidential campaign.
All 191 United Nations members are agreed on the need for a treaty that would prohibit cloning human beings, but they have been stalled for three years by sharp differences over whether to broaden the ban, as the United States wishes, to cover therapeutic cloning.
The push for a total ban has set the Bush administration against close allies like Britain and much of the world's scientific establishment, which contend it would block research on cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis and other conditions. The White House argues that enough stem cells from human embryos exist for research and that cloning an embryo for any reason is unethical.
Negotiations have been going on for more than a year in the General Assembly's legal committee, which draws up treaties, and a vote was scheduled for today on two competing versions with scant hope that the necessary consensus would emerge for an effective treaty.
The United States backed a resolution proposed by Costa Rica to outlaw all forms of human cloning, while opponents of such an absolute prohibition supported a Belgian measure banning reproductive cloning outright and offering nations three options for therapeutic cloning: outlawing it, putting a moratorium on the practice or regulating it through national legislation to prevent misuse.
Instead of proceeding to a showdown vote tonight, the committee agreed instead to take up a nonbinding declaration proposed by Italy with ambiguous language that avoided raising objections and to schedule meetings in February to shape the final wording. The Italians' proposal prohibits "any attempts to create human life through cloning processes and any research intended to achieve that aim."
Regardless of what language emerges, the result will be a declaration, not a treaty, which would have been the outcome had either the Costa Rican or Belgian versions been adopted, and nations will be under considerably less pressure to change their existing views on cloning.
"A declaration is important for what it's not," said Bernard Siegel, the executive director of the Genetics Policy Institute, who had lobbied against the American-led campaign. "It is not a treaty, it is nonbinding and it will have no chilling effect on therapeutic cloning, and stem cell research will advance. We consider this a triumph."
Adam Ereli, a State Department spokesman, acknowledged that a global ban would not now be adopted but said the administration still viewed the result as positive. "Obviously, we'd like to get a total ban," he said. "We recognize that that may not be possible right now. On the other side of the coin, you can also say that we have been successful in preventing any endorsement of cloning."
I guess it failed the Global Test.
