Human cloning opponents say that the scientific process is not ethical and against religion

NEW YORK, November 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Unable to reach a consensus for more than one year, the United Nations dropped Friday, November 19, plans for a treaty banning human cloning.

The UN General Assembly’s legal committee abandoned a planned vote on two competing motions and decided to convene in three months to discuss a compromise non-binding declaration tabled by Italy, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The world body is spilt over two rival cloning resolutions.

One, offered by Costa Rica and backed by the US , calls for drafting a treaty banning all forms of cloning. The other, from Belgium , would allow some cloning for science.

“There is such a division in the international community that any treaty would not make it, so the idea of the declaration is to find some general language that we could all live with,” Marc Pecsteen, a Belgian diplomat, told the Associated Press.

All 191 United Nations members, however, 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.

Many researchers believe stem cells harvested from embryos could be used to regenerate nerve tissue or cure diseases, including Alzheimer's spinal-cord injury, cancer and Parkinson's disease.

But extracting stem cells from an embryo kills the embryo, which opponents say is tantamount to taking a life.

Islam completely prohibits human cloning. (Click here to read Islam’s stances on animal and human cloning).

Toothless

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.

Bernard Siegel, the executive director of the Genetics Policy Institute, who had lobbied against the American-led campaign, said the declaration would be toothless.

“It is not a treaty, it is nonbinding, and it will have no chilling effect on therapeutic cloning, and stem cell research will advance,” he told The New York Times.

“Moderate Success”

“It's our longstanding position that all human cloning is wrong and we are proud of our efforts to prevent human cloning,” said Ereli

US President George W. Bush had insisted that a total cloning ban would be a priority at this year's UN General Assembly.

Now his administration refused to characterize the UN’s postponement decision as a defeat.

“It's our longstanding position that all human cloning is wrong and we are proud of our efforts to prevent human cloning so the fact that there isn't any action by the UN to endorse cloning is a moderate success,” State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.

“Obviously, we'd like to get a total ban,” he added.

“We recognize that that may not be possible right now. On the other side of the coin, you can also say that we have been successful in preventing any endorsement of cloning.

“You can look at the glass as half empty or you can look at the glass as half full. We choose to look at it as half full and to work toward getting it to the brim soon.”

Ereli said the Bush administration would use the three month to lobby support for its position.

“We believe that should there be a working group, it would provide further opportunity for us and like-minded nations ... to press the position that all human cloning is wrong and should be banned,” he said.

With the support of President Bush, the United States House of Representatives voted in 2001 to ban human cloning by a vote of 265-162.