Con il margine di un voto (80 a 79) l'ONU ha approvato una risoluzione per
rimandare ogni tentativo di mettere al bando la clonazionale riproduttiva.
Ciò come conseguenza della posizione americana e di altri 50 paesi di inserire
nel bando anche la clonazionale terapeutica.

prof Enzo Reale

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UN delays ban on human cloning

The UN narrowly blocked a move on Nov 6 to approve a global ban on
human cloning. The 58th General Assembly's legal committee, which
includes representatives of most UN members, voted 80 to 79 to accept
an Iranian proposal to delay any attempt to draft a treaty on the
subject until 2005.

Although there is almost universal support at the UN for a ban on
reproductive cloning, the USA and about 50 other countries have
insisted that any treaty must also prohibit cloning efforts aimed at
producing embryonic stem cells. But therapeutic cloning is legal in
several countries, such as the UK and Sweden, and their governments
are opposed to a global ban.

There were three potential scenarios at the meeting. If the motion to
defer the treaty--put forward by Iran on behalf of 57 Arab nations--
had failed, the committee was to vote on a US-Costa Rican resolution
to set up a working group to draft a treaty prohibiting all forms of
cloning. Failing that move, the committee would have voted on a
Belgian proposal, supported by 13 other countries including the UK
and Sweden, to ban only reproductive cloning, leaving individual
governments to regulate therapeutic cloning.

After the vote, US Deputy Ambassador James Cunningham said a partial
ban "has never been a principle that we've been prepared to accept".
And Belgian Ambassador Jean de Ruyt argued: "[if] you start from the
perspective of whether an embryo is a human being, you'll never reach
agreement". The Iranian representative contended that the extra time
would allow the UN to come up with a better basis for consensus by
the UN's 60th Session in 2005. However, Cunningham warned: "We will
use this time to continue to enlarge the body of international
opinion that supports a total ban on human cloning."
Xavier Bosch