UN committee approves international declaration against human cloning

21 February 2005 – An international
declaration calling for a ban on human cloning has been approved in a
contentious vote by the main United Nations Legal Committee.

 

The “Sixth Committee?? voted 71 in favor to 35 against ? with 43
abstentions ? to pass the text along to the General Assembly for formal
adoption. The declaration calls for countries to prohibit all forms of
human cloning inasmuch as they are incompatible with human dignity and
the protection of human life.

 

The United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning was approved after
earlier efforts failed to elaborate a binding international treaty on
the practice.

 

In its resolution, the Sixth Committee also called for the adoption of
all measures necessary to protect human life in the application of life
sciences, and to prohibit the application of genetic engineering
techniques that may be contrary to human dignity.

 

While there was widespread agreement over the need to ban human
reproductive cloning, the issue was hotly debated. Friday’s vote was no
exception.

This is a topic which is going to become even more hotly debated as cloning technology develops and the various uses for this technology become more widely known.