Following the Oct. 21 announcement by the U.N Secretary General Kofi Annan regarding his support for human cloning, it appears that the United Nations will delay the vote on a measure that would ban all forms of human cloning until after the U.S. presidential election in November.
Along with some other 60 nations, the United States and Costa Rica are supporting the measure. Meanwhile, Great Britain, Belgium and other European nations are in opposition.
In late 2003, Costa Rica proposed to pass a complete cloning ban. The United Nations voted in December to delay the decision for a year. This year, along side with Costa Rica, the U.S. will vote in favor of a total ban treaty.
Bush administration spokeswoman Susan Moore said, "The international community must act now ... to send a clear message that human cloning is an affront to human dignity that cannot be tolerated."
"A ban that differentiates between human reproductive and experimental cloning would essentially authorize the creation of a human embryo for the purpose of destroying it, thus elevating the value of research and experimentation above that of a human life," Moore added.
The Royal Society of the UK is urging the UN to ignore George Bush's call to ban all forms of human cloning. Meanwhile, the International Society for Stem Cell Research sent on Monday a letter to the General Assembly asking members not to adopt a measure that would bring an end to all forms of human cloning.
Currently, the United States has no federal cloning law, but New Jersey and California have regulations permitting therapeutic cloning and prohibiting reproductive cloning.
Some countries that allow cloning are Singapore, China and South Korea.
