In the United States and worldwide, overwhelming majorities of scientists, legislators, civil society constituencies, and the general population oppose the creation of cloned human being on the basis of safety and/or political and ethical concerns. While positions on the use of cloning techniques for research purposes vary, only a very few individuals or groups support cloning for reproductive purposes. Debates on cloning in the U.S. Congress and at the United Nations, for example, demonstrated nearly unanimous support for legally binding bans on human reproductive cloning.

The list below shows some key organizations and individuals that publicly support bans on reproductive cloning.

I. Scientists opposing reproductive cloning:

• Rudolf Jaenisch, Whitehead Institute and Ian Wilmut, Roslin Institute, the lead researcher in the cloning of the sheep Dolly: "There are many social and ethical reasons why we would never be in favor of copying a person."
  Resources >> Items >> "Don't Clone Humans!"

• 40 Nobel laureates: "No responsible scientist supports the cloning of a human being."
  http://www.ascb.org/publicpolicy/daschle.html

• Medical Associations: American, Australian, Italian, others

• National Academy of Sciences: "Enacting a legally enforceable ban that carries substantial penalties would be the best way to discourage human reproductive cloning experiments in both the public and private sectors." http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/0309076374?OpenDocument

• American Association for the Advancement of Science: "AAAS endorses a legally enforceable ban on efforts to implant a human cloned embryo for the purpose of reproduction."
  http://archives.aaas.org/docs/resolutions.php?doc_id=425

• Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology http://www.faseb.org/opar/news/docs/nr4x10x2.html

• Association of American Medical Colleges: "The AAMC...recommends a legally enforceable ban on all forms of [reproductive] cloning." http://www.aamc.org/advocacy/research/cloning/start.htm

• Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority

II. Industry groups supporting a ban on reproductive cloning:

• Biotechnology Industry Organization: "BIO supports a legally enforceable ban on the practice of human reproductive cloning" (1/18/02). http://www.bio.org/newsroom/newsitem.asp?id=2002_0118_01

• "It is too dangerous technically and raises too many ethical and social questions" (3/28/01).
  http://www.bio.org/bioethics/okarmatestimony.htm

• "The American Society for Reproductive Medicine is opposed to any attempt at human reproductive cloning." http://www.asrm.org/Media/misc_announcements/cloning/asrmpositioncloning.html

• Association of Reproductive Health Professionals: "[O]verwhelming scientific evidence shows that cloning is not a safe procedure for human reproduction at this time."
  http://www.arhp.org/aboutarhp/positionstatements.cfm?ID=30
  

III. Patient advocacy groups supporting a ban on reproductive cloning:

• Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research
  http://www.stemcellfunding.org/fastaction/

• Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation http://www.christopherreeve.org/News/News.cfm?ID=230&c=30

• Rett Syndrome Research Foundation
  http://www.rsrf.org/policy.shtml

• Parkinson's Action Network
  http://www.parkinsonsaction.org/whatwedo/BackgroundPaperSCNT.pdf

• CuresNow
  http://www.curesnow.org/

• Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
  http://www.jdrf.org/

IV. Countries who have banned reproductive cloning:

Australia, Austria, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom

V. International conventions and organizations calling for nations to outlaw reproductive cloning:

• Council of Europe, Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine

• European Union / European Parliament

• UNESCO, Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights (non-binding)

• World Health Assembly / World Health Organization

• Group of Eight

• United Nations General Assembly - proposed international treaty banning reproductive cloning now under discussion

 

---

More Information

Perspectives: Explore various communities' concerns regarding human genetic technologies

Policies: Read about existing and potential regulations

Technologies: Learn the basic science and consider arguments for and against

Date modified: