The following excerpts are highlights of current events and do not
necessarily represent the views of the
FROM THE
ISSUES OF HUMAN CLONING
In September and October of this year the 6th Committee of the UN General Assembly met to consider a charge given it by the General Assembly: to draft an international convention banning human cloning.
Two alternative drafts
were proposed. The French and Germans
proposed a formula that would have banned "reproductive cloning"
while allowing "therapeutic cloning" to continue.
The term "cloning" refers to a process whereby a human egg is fertilized and stimulated to reproduce not by the conventional means of sperm, but by the addition of the genetic code from an outside source, such as a skin or hair follicle cell. (Some challenge the use of the term "fertilized" to describe this process, but in any event the newly "stimulated" egg then begins to multiply and divide in a manner that leads to birth). The rapidly multiplying cellular mass soon becomes a "blastocyst" and is implanted in a woman's uterus, where it is allowed to continue to mature. The term "reproductive cloning" refers to the above process being allowed to continue to a live birth of a "clone," a la Dolly, the famous sheep, only human. The term "therapeutic cloning" refers to the above process being interrupted prior to birth, in order that the organs and/or stem cells might be "harvested" for the benefit of other people in need of them. In this process of developing organs, such as a pancreas gland or a kidney, a Petri dish may not be used in place of a mother’s womb. "Therapeutic cloning" therefore strongly resembles abortion, with the exception that the life process is begun with the intention of eventually ending it before birth. Advocates of this process refer not to "the killing of the fetus," preferring more euphemistic terms such as "cellular disaggregation."
The Spanish/US/Philippine proposal called for a ban on all "embryonic" cloning, and would have encouraged research using "adult stem cells," which appear to have all the advantages and promises of stem cells without the ethical baggage accompanying the creation and destruction of human embryos.
Representatives of the
In October, the Center hosted a scientific briefing at the UN for all 6th Committee members, where Dr. David Prentice and Dr. Nigel Cameron discussed the biological processes and discussed the ethical, medical, and social implications of the various alternatives.
Subsequently, the Committee voted to table the question until Fall 2003. We are now preparing a CD-ROM that will contain Drs. Prentice and Cameron's presentations for distribution to the delegates and their capitals, in the hope that the 2003 discussions will be better informed and will result in the ban of all forms of human embryonic cloning and pursue research using adult stem cells.
Today's newsletter contains a collection of recent news articles on this general topic. We hope you will find them informative and helpful in your efforts to support the traditional family, including the sacred means by which new life is introduced to the earth. The presentations by Drs. Prentice and Cameron are available on our website at http://www.worldfamilypolicycenter.org/wfpc/Issues/human_cloning.htm. Thank you for your interest.
IN THE NEWS
HUMAN CLONE (click title to read the full article)
Reports Say One May Be On The Way -- Like It Or Not
WebMD.com
by Laurie Barclay
We
may soon be able to drop the fiction
aspect from the science fiction surrounding human cloning. A fertility
specialist in
Although the issue of whether we can clone a human may now be put to rest, the issue still remains of whether we should clone a human. Is it necessary, is it ethical, and what are the risks?
EXPERTS WARY OF HUMAN CLONE CLAIMS (click title to read the full article)
CNN.com/health
Experts have greeted with scepticism the claims by an Italian doctor that a woman was 33 weeks' pregnant with a cloned baby boy.
John Kilner, president of the
"Such experiments subject human beings produced through cloning to a high risk of death and deformity. The best way to ensure that cloning is not pursued is to pass a comprehensive ban on human cloning.
"The
"Regardless of the health and well-being of the clone upon birth, all nations should affirm the child's human rights. The risk of doing nothing is unacceptable."
FROM THE UN
CLONING: ITALIAN DOCTOR CLAIMS CLONED CHILD TO BE BORN IN JANUARY
UN WIRE - (Click title to read the full article)
Italian fertility doctor Severino Antinori told reporters in
Rome yesterday a woman is due to give birth to a cloned baby in January and
that the fetus is "absolutely healthy." The announcement follows
agreement at the United Nations earlier this month to put off the drafting of a
global human cloning ban, and the issue is expected to be the subject of a
meeting among U.N. agencies called by UNESCO.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTS SERIES OF RESOLUTIONS ON
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL MATTERS
UN
The United Nations General Assembly today adopted a series of resolutions
recommended by its legal committee, including texts on human cloning, terrorism
and protection of personnel on United Nations peacekeeping missions. The
Assembly kept the question of reproductive cloning of human beings on its
agenda for another year by deciding to convene a working group of its Sixth
(Legal) Committee from 28 September to