UN debates on cloning officially delayed

The General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) has approved a resolution delaying debates on an international ban on human  cloning until October next year, following disputes about exactly how broad any ban should be.

Delegates of the Legal Committee decided earlier this month to delay the drafting of an international treaty that would ban human reproductive cloning. The proposed UN resolution was a response to a call from France and Germany last year for a legally binding international treaty. The two countries also wanted restrictions to be placed on the creation of cloned embryos for research purposes.

Talks had begun in February, but the US claimed that the French and German proposal did not 'go far enough' and requested that a 'comprehensive and global ban' on all forms of cloning and embryo experimentation should be implemented. At the time, delegates from other UN countries objected to the US proposal on the grounds that cloning for research purposes may have the potential to save many lives. But the US claimed that at least thirty nations, including 'heavily Catholic' countries like Spain and the Philippines, supported its proposal. France and Germany proposed a two-step approach, first dealing with reproductive cloning, and then debating what to do about therapeutic cloning, but the US wants a 'one-step blanket ban on all forms of cloning'.

Speaking about the delay, a spokesperson for Germany said that the decision 'should not be misinterpreted by scientists or others going for cloning of babies as a green light to go ahead'.