The United Nations is considering two competing resolutions Wednesday that propose international bans on human cloning in an effort to establish global legal boundaries in the area of life sciences.
All U.N. member states agree that reproductive cloning, which is intended to produce a child with the same genes as its genetic parent, should be prohibited. Other cloning issues are more divisive, however.
The United States is campaigning for the U.N. General Assembly to vote in favor of the Costa Rican-sponsored resolution calling for a treaty to ban all forms of human cloning. It is supported by at least 61 other countries.
However, 23 countries are opposed to this decree, and the 57 nation members of the Islamic Conference have asked for a two-year delay on a decision.
“There are other ways to achieve the ends sought, including animal and adult stem-cell research, that do not present the ethical problems presented by cloning,” Carolyn Wilson, U.S. Deputy Counselor for Legal Affairs, said in a speech before the U.N. sixth committee last week. “We believe that human cloning, for any purpose, is unethical in itself and sets a dangerous precedent.”
Scientists supporting human cloning for medical purposes say they hope to use stem cells from human embryos to find cures for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other debilitating diseases. The University of Wisconsin is a leading institute for such research, as one of the leading suppliers of cells that require cloning for research.
UW research would not be affected by any restrictions on human cloning, according to researchers.
Waclaw Syzbalski, UW oncology professor, said the university also participates in various cloning research projects, including plant cloning to study how to improve health aspects and growth space of plants. UW is also working to continue the study of animal and organ cloning.
However, Szybalski said there is not enough information known about reproductive cloning, so nobody really wants to do it.
“This [research] is much too early to do with humans,” Szybalski said.
He added that most of the controversy surrounding cloning comes from religious groups who do not want to tamper with nature. He described this view as a “medieval idea.”
“Most of the activists that are opposed to cloning are doing that as a means of support … to make money,” Szybalski said.
He added that there are many meanings of cloning, but it is essentially the transplantation of a nucleus from the cell of one organism to another.
“It’s a very expensive science, but it’s very beneficial,” Szybalski said.
UW set up a nonprofit institute, known as WiCell Research Institute, Inc., in 2000. It is headed by UW developmental biologist James Thompson and supplies cells to support research for both academic and non-academic researchers all over the world.
The 23 countries opposing a ban on all human cloning, including major powers like France, Britain, China and Japan, co-sponsored Belgium’s rival resolution, which aims to ban cloning to produce babies but suggests leaving the question of human cloning for research and medical experimentation to individual countries.
Last year, U.S. president George Bush restricted federal funding for human embryonic stem-cell research to a select number of existing cells already harvested.
“I believe all human cloning is wrong, and both forms of cloning ought to be banned,” Bush said in an April 2002 speech.
In 2001 the controversial Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001 was introduced, which would make it a crime for any person to perform or attempt to perform human cloning.
