| Human Rights/Racism
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HUMAN REPRODUCTIVE CLONING
ISSUE: In l997, scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland announced that they had
successfully cloned a sheep. This event caused worldwide concern about the potential
application of this technology to humans.
In response, 28 countries passed legislation banning human reproductive cloning (HRC).
They represent fewer than 1/5th of the world's countries. Included are Brazil, Germany and
Italy.
THE CENTER FOR GENETICS AND SOCIETY: A non profit NGO of scientists, medical doctors and
lawyers who are opposed to HRC, offered a seminar for NGOs and UN Delegates to educate
about Human Reproductive Cloning. They believe that this is the most important and
dangerous issue that humanity has ever had to face. They explained that HRC is against
human rights because it denies a person their identity; it is unnatural since only one
person is involved, and it is another way to exploit a woman's body. She will be asked to
sell her eggs for a profit. Poor women would be especially vulnerable. In the process of
cloning, many clones would be deformed or stillborn, as happened with 450 sheep before
success with Dolly.
NEW URGENCY: Despite an almost universal rejection of HRC, at least three teams of rogue
scientists have publicly declared their intent to create human clones. If they are not
prevented, they could succeed in a range from immediately to within 5 years.
UNITED NATIONS TREATY: In 2001, France and Germany proposed an international convention to
ban hrc and the General Assembly of 2001 unanimously approved a committee to begin work on
such a convention. The Committee hopes to have a Convention ready by the General Assembly
of 2003. Knowing that there are many contentious issues involved with Genetic Engineering,
the UN committee is focusing only on the most urgent issue, i.e. Human Reproductive
Cloning. To ban HRC is the first step that the nations need to take and take quickly. Once
HRC is banned, other negative aspects of genetic engineering can be faced. In the interim,
some countries have passed laws prohibiting certain types of genetic engineering. However,
unless every country signs on to the UN Treaty to ban HRC, some countries will create and
export clones.
RESOURCES:
The Association of Reproductive Health Professionals Genetic Engineering Resource Center
offers a good overview and diagrams of how Human Reproductive Cloning is done. www.arhp.org/cloning/
A comprehensive site addressing cloning and other new human genetic technologies, with
links and action steps. www.genetics-and-society.org
Official UN Cloning Treaty Web site offering access to documents, etc. Click on F for
French, E for English. www.un.org/law/cloning
Friends of the Earth cloning site includes various links and information. www.foe.org/stopcloning/
Sister Bernadette Sullivan
Congregational Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation Committee
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