5 replies to this topic

[eternaltraveler]

The UN wants to ban theraputic cloning

What are we supposed to do about this?

[Lazarus Long]

First off start supporting the Belgian/British opposition alternative since it is too late to vote out the Bush administration that is really responsible for this proposal as the sponsor for Costa Rica.

http://www.startribu...84/5057643.html
UNITED NATIONS -- A U.N. effort to ban the reproductive cloning of humans is being held up for the third straight year by a polarizing argument over whether the prohibition should be extended to cover stem cell and other research known as therapeutic cloning.

All 191 U.N. members agree on a treaty that will ban cloning humans, an idea first proposed in 2001, but they are divided over whether to broaden the ban to cover therapeutic cloning.

The Bush administration is aggressively seeking the total ban. That has set it against close allies such as Britain and much of the world's scientific establishment, which contends that it would block research on cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis and other diseases.

The White House says that enough stem cells from human embryos exist for research and that cloning an embryo for any reason is unethical.

The United States has thrown its weight behind a resolution offered by Costa Rica to outlaw all human cloning as "unethical, morally reproachable and contrary to due respect for the human person." Such a global ban would go beyond the restrictions put on cloning under U.S. law.

The measure has 63 co-sponsors, most of them Roman Catholic countries or nations from the developing world.

Belgium has offered a compromise resolution, co-sponsored by Britain and 19 other countries, that would ban human cloning for reproductive purposes outright and would offer nations three options for dealing with therapeutic cloning -- banning it, putting a moratorium on the practice or regulating it through national legislation to prevent misuse.
(excerpt)

http://news.xinhuane...ent_2143359.htm

Second, invest offshore in various International Research groups that are moving forward rapidly on these technologies, to include Britain, Belgium, South Korea, Japan and China. I fully expect the major Pharmaceuticals and Biotech firms to create a variety of international shell groups in which investment may get tricky and highly risky but also may pay returns of great wealth in many forms.

Third, begin a letter writing campaign and petitions that cut across regional divides to unite our common interest in support of the alternative and make this known to State and Federal legislators but also send copies of the letters and petitions to foreign representatives that are advocating the alternative AND relevent corporate lobbyists. This must be fought as both a domestic and international battle simultaneously.

The Bush backed legislation won't work but instead is almost guaranteed to make a whole new underground economy and front in the so called *International Drug War* should this administration succeed, driving many people that are mainstream into the shadow world of black marketeering.

It is hard to believe that this administration is not intentionally making things worse. The proposals and steps taken are too systematic and deliberate to be the simple consequence of their ignorant blind faith.

OK let me put my *tin foil beanie* on )

I am slowly coming to the belief more and more that they are building a *secret biotech* program even as they are decrying it in public so that they can micromanage not only the benefits (and profits) but because of the possibility of bio-weapons that are potential spin offs from the same technologies.

[eternaltraveler]

There is one good thing that came out of the war with Iraq. It went against the UN.

International law makes me sick. All it seems to do is garrentee that there is nowhere free in the world.

[eternaltraveler]

The following article appeared in the new york times today.

I believe a sigh of relief is in order

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

November 20, 2004
U.S. Drops Effort for Treaty Banning Cloning
By WARREN HOGE

NITED NATIONS, Nov. 19 - Faced with polarizing division in the 191-member General Assembly, the United States on Friday abandoned its aggressively pursued attempt to obtain a United Nations treaty banning all human cloning, including that done in the name of medical research.

The outcome - an agreement to come up with a nonbinding declaration against cloning to reproduce humans - fell far short of the American goal and represented a setback for President Bush. He called for a worldwide ban on all cloning when he addressed the United Nations General Assembly in August, and he made limiting stem cell and other related research an issue in his presidential campaign.

All 191 United Nations members have agreed on the need for a treaty to prohibit reproductive cloning. But a vote has been stalled for three years by sharp differences over whether to broaden the ban, as the United States wishes, to prohibit cloning to create stem cells for research, part of a field known as therapeutic cloning.

The push for a total ban has set the Bush administration against close allies like Britain and much of the world's scientific establishment, who contend that it would block research on cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis and other conditions. The White House argues that enough stem cells from human embryos exist for research and that cloning an embryo for any reason is unethical.

Negotiations have been going on for more than a year in the General Assembly's legal committee, which draws up treaties. A vote was scheduled for Friday on two competing versions, but with scant hope of the kind of consensus emerging considered necessary for an effective treaty.

The United States backed a resolution proposed by Costa Rica to outlaw all forms of human cloning, while opponents of such an absolute prohibition supported a Belgian measure banning reproductive cloning outright and offering nations three options for therapeutic cloning: outlawing it, putting a moratorium on the practice, or regulating it through national legislation to prevent misuse.

Instead of proceeding to a showdown vote on Friday night, the committee agreed instead to take up a nonbinding declaration proposed by Italy with ambiguous language that avoided raising objections and to schedule meetings in February to shape the final wording. The Italians' proposal prohibits "any attempts to create human life through cloning processes and any research intended to achieve that aim."

Regardless of what language emerges, the result will be a declaration, not a treaty, which would have been the outcome had either the Costa Rican or Belgian versions been adopted. Because of that, nations will be under considerably less pressure to change their existing views on cloning.

"A declaration is important for what it's not," said Bernard Siegel, the executive director of the Genetics Policy Institute, who had lobbied against the American-led campaign. "It is not a treaty, it is nonbinding, and it will have no chilling effect on therapeutic cloning, and stem cell research will advance. We consider this a triumph."