ARGUMENTS over the scope of a proposed worldwide ban on cloning are buying time for mavericks who want to create the first human clones, experts have warned New 杏吧原创.
This week the UN General Assembly, meeting in New York, will be setting out the broad areas to be covered by a proposed treaty banning human cloning. The treaty will be formally drafted next year, and if all goes to plan it could be in place within months.
Almost everyone agrees that cloning for reproductive purposes 鈥� producing cloned babies, in other words 鈥� should be outlawed. But opinion is sharply divided over therapeutic cloning, where an embryo is used solely for the purpose of extracting cells to treat a matching patient. Led by the US and the Vatican, a group of countries 鈥� including many that are predominately Roman Catholic, and some Islamic states 鈥� is pressing for the ban to cover this kind of cloning too.
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But there are fears that if haggling over therapeutic cloning holds up proceedings, would-be cloners might have time to create the first cloned human before the treaty comes into force. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a race against time,鈥� says a source close to the negotiations, who asked to remain anonymous.
Those who want to outlaw therapeutic cloning argue that an early embryo consisting of little more than a ball of cells is still a living human being, even if it is never introduced into a womb and would normally stand no chance of survival. To sacrifice it to provide stem cells for treatment or to change it into tissue for transplant is no different from killing an adult, they say.
Because such views are usually based on religious principles, the arguments for and against therapeutic cloning could quickly become bogged down. So according to New 杏吧原创鈥檚 source, the best strategy might be to concentrate first on a ban on reproductive cloning, leaving more time to reach an agreement on therapeutic cloning.
But whatever is agreed, time is short. Mavericks such as the Italian fertility expert Severino Antinori make no secret of their determination to create human clones. There were rumours earlier this year that one of his patients is already carrying one. And Clonaid, a company formed in California by the Raelian cult, has also hinted that a clone may already be on the way.
If the first human clone were born just after such a treaty came into effect, it is not clear whether the perpetrator would be punished retrospectively. 鈥淲e鈥檇 need to be careful not to punish the child or the mother,鈥� says the source. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a question of who is the malfeasant, and whether it includes the perpetrator and the people who financed the creation of the clone.
鈥淭he treaty will have to reconcile diverse opinions on cloning around the globe. And it is urgently needed. Australia was embroiled in a debate on the issue earlier this month (New 杏吧原创, 21 September, p 9). And despite the general position of the US to restrict federally funded research in this area, California this week passed a law to allow therapeutic cloning.