Scientists press UN for worldwide ban on cloning of babies

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/09/23/wclon23.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/09/23/ixportal.html

Scientists from around the world yesterday urged the United Nations to ban the cloning of babies.

Their statement, which was issued by 63 science academies representing more than 16,000 leading scientists, will be presented to the UN Ad Hoc Committee at an International Convention against the Reproductive Cloning of Human Beings in New York on Monday.

Only 30 countries, including Britain, have formally banned human cloning and it is hoped that a UN convention will put pressure on more countries to pass effective legislation.

One signatory was the US National Academy of Science. Its support was significant, said Lord May, president of the Royal Society, which also signed, because in America "you can do essentially nothing with public money and you can do anything you like with private money . . . an ethically curious position".

[izzie]

1. We could clone Bush and you could have one also

Well I have not finished my coffee so I am out of this morn.Why should you be in Canada and be in Sanesville when I live in this country with this fruit cake? Tell me that??????

[T_i_B]

Nice thought...................BUT

I'm in Britain and Tony Blair has already decided that he quite fancies life as a Bush clone. :eyes:

[ET Awful]

2. Why did I read this as worldwide CLOTHING of babies the first time through

Sorry. . . my coffee hasn't taken hold yet :)

[WillParkinson]

3. We should NOT ban cloning humans...

Regulate it, maybe. Ban it? No.

Why?

Because there will always be someone who will try to skirt the issue just to prove they can do it. I realize that regulation won't make any difference there but working together to perfect a technique could help to keep it safe and not turn out 'mutant monster children'.

[papau]

4. What right wing spin!! - They endorsed clonning for therapy :-)

Indeed a 2 year battle with the Bush administration and the abortion nuts was won by the good guys - those that want to permit cloning to get stem cells.

But our media is going to spin this as a victory for anti-choice!

crazy

But Human clonning ban makes sense until we understand all the defects that we get in annimal cloning (like being born with "old" cells).