Bush Administration Pursues Total Human Cloning Ban at U.N.

Bioethics   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 18, 2003   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Bush Administration Pursues Total Human Cloning Ban at U.N.

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 18, 2003

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) — President Bush is vigorously pursuing a complete ban on all forms of human cloning at the United Nations.

Last year, a coalition of countries led by France and Germany sought a partial ban on human cloning that would have prohibited reproductive human cloning but allowed it in research where human embryos are cloned and killed to obtain stem cells.

President Bush and pro-life groups oppose such "clone and kill" proposals because the research involves the destruction of unborn children.

The Bush administration led an effort against the proposal and it was postponed for one year.

Now, Bush is backing a new effort sponsored by Costa Rica that would ban both forms of human cloning. It is similar to legislation proposed in Congress that enjoys the support of pro-life organizations and is backed by 40 other nations.

Other nations will likely lobby Costa Rica and its allies to open up the proposal for amendment to allow destructive research-based human cloning.

However, Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America has been monitoring the cloning debate and says the Bush administration is "aggressively supporting" Costa Rica’s proposal — "even sending U.S. Ambassador Sichan Siv to several countries to get them to sign on."

Though Germany was a leader in the effort to produce a partial cloning ban, it has a law banning both forms of human cloning.

"There are some in Germany who want to overturn this ban but have not been successful," Wright tells LifeNews.com. "Since the German constitution states that international law supersedes national, they turned to the UN to pass a partial ban, thereby undoing their national law."

The U.N. is scheduled to debate Costa Rica’s proposal from September 29 to October 3 and the vote will occur in late October.