杏吧原创

PLEASE answer the following: 鈥淲hat is incompatible with human dignity?鈥� You have one hour.

That鈥檚 precisely the question governments might have to wrestle with before deciding whether or not to allow human embryos to be cloned for research. At least, they will if they have any intention of honouring a proposed UN declaration on human cloning that was approved last Friday by the UN鈥檚 Legal Committee. It still has to go before the General Assembly.

The declaration is the latest chapter in a three-year saga that began with the goal of banning the creation of cloned babies worldwide. But some countries wanted the ban to extend to all forms of human cloning, including for research. Others wanted to keep this option.

After much squabbling, the quest for a treaty was finally abandoned last year (New 杏吧原创, 27 November 2004, p 5). Instead, Italy proposed a face-saving declaration that has no legal weight. The result is woolly and open to interpretation. The crucial clause seeks to 鈥減rohibit all forms of human cloning inasmuch as they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life鈥�.

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