The Argentinean Committee of Ethics in Science and Technology has called on the country's government to change its laws on cloning. Currently, all forms of human cloning - whether for reproductive or therapeutic purposes - are banned in Argentina, but the Committee says the government should allow human embryos to be cloned for research into the treatment of diseases.
Cloning was banned in Argentina in 1997 by Carlos Menem, who was then the president. Later, in 2001, Argentina joined other countries in asking the United Nations to create an international treaty outlawing all forms of cloning. The United Nations was due to vote on the treaty resolution last year but postponed the vote for a year because of disagreement among member states, some of whom, including the UK, had already passed laws supporting the development of therapeutic cloning.
The Committee of Ethics in Science and Technology was set up in 2001 to advise the science minister on cloning. Now, it says that President Nestor Kirchner should withdraw the country's support from the UN resolution and change domestic law to permit embryo cloning for medical research.
Alberto Kornblihtt, one of the members of the committee, stated its new position: 'We consider that reproductive cloning - that is, the cloning of a human being - must not be allowed. It is not safe, biologically and technically'. He continued: 'Even if the technical problems are solved, reproductive cloning is unjustified from a medical and social point of view', adding 'what we do support is the use of cloning to study remedies for fatal diseases'.
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