Should human cloning be outlawed?

Outlaw human cloning or protect rights of future clones: UN official

Mon Nov 12, 12:39 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071112/sc_afp/usunsciencerightscloning_071112173047

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The international community should outlaw reproductive human cloning or quickly adopt rules to protect the rights of any future cloned humans, a top UN official said Sunday.


A lab worker looks at DNA samples. The international community should outlaw reproductive human cloning or quickly adopt rules to protect the rights of any future cloned humans, a top UN official said Sunday.(AFP/File/Mehdi Fedouach)

"Failure to outlaw reproductive cloning means it is just a matter of time until cloned individuals share the planet," Brendan Tobin of the Irish Center for Human Rights in Galway, Ireland and one of the chief authors of key UN study told AFP.

The report to be released Monday "Is Human Reproductive Cloning Inevitable: Future Options for UN Governance," warns that humans created from reproductive cloning face potential abuse, prejudice and discrimination.

"The world community must accept responsibility and ensure that any cloned individual receives full human rights protection," Tobin said, summarizing one of the key findings of the UN study.

France and Germany have proposed a convention to ban reproductive human cloning and regularize what is known as therapeutic cloning used in research to try to battle serious illnesses.

But UN negotiations broke down in 2005 due to opposition from certain states including the United States and the Vatican which are also opposed to therapeutic cloning on religious grounds.