HEADLINE: U.S., Pushing for Broader Ban, Blocks
U.N. Anti-Cloning Move
BYLINE: By JULIA
PRESTON
DATELINE: UNITED NATIONS, Nov.
7
BODY: The United States, supported
by 36 other nations, blocked an initiative by Germany and France today for a
worldwide ban on cloning to create human beings, insisting that the ban should
include all forms of human cloning.
The Bush administration made its move in a procedural motion in a
committee of the General Assembly, diplomats said. Rather than move ahead with
negotiations on the German and French proposal, the Assembly's Sixth Committee,
which deals with international legal matters, decided by consensus to postpone
the cloning debate until September 2003.
The diplomats
said that the committee acted after it was clear that no general accord would be
reached on either the French and German proposal for a treaty banning only
"reproductive cloning of human beings," or on a competing resolution by the
United States and Spain calling for a ban on "human cloning" across the
board.
The ban proposed by the Bush administration
would include cloning of human embryos for medical research or therapy.
Germany made plain its frustration with the outcome.
"This leaves the field wide open to those working towards
giving birth to a cloned human being," said Christian Walter Much, who read the
German statement, which was also endorsed by France. "It underlines that
insisting upon far-reaching principles sometimes leads to a situation which
makes it impossible to act effectively."
Berlin had
hoped to move quickly, as a first step, to bar cloning to create human babies,
leaving the door open to a broader ban later on.
American diplomats called the decision today an important victory.
"We were pleased that we were able to reach a consensus
that on such a vital issue there needs to be continued work," said Carolyn L.
Willson, legal adviser to the American Mission here. "We've seen momentum
building for a total ban," she added.
American
officials argued that research cloning involves creating embryos that later have
to be destroyed. The technique "raises profound ethical and moral questions and
is highly controversial," the United States said in a position paper in
February.