Additional Reporting By IOL Cairo Staff

UNITED NATIONS, September 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A UN commission working on a draft international accord to ban human reproductive cloning concluded talks Friday, September 27, but failed to reach a consensus, sources said.

France and Germany presented a joint proposal that would have sped up negotiations for the convention, which its supporters have sought to implement by 2004, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The absence of a consensus after five days of closed door talks mean that the Franco-German proposal would be presented -- without guarantee of adoption, in October or November to the Sixth Commission -- which rules on legal questions at the United Nations.

Such an additional step would delay by at least a month the next meeting to debate the convention, which supporters consider urgent due to the numerous scientific advances made in reproductive cloning and recent statements by researchers suggesting that such procedures are not far off.

Diplomatic sources suggest that the delay stems from a dispute pitting those who favor a ban only on reproductive cloning against others -- like the United States and the Vatican -- seeking to ban all human cloning, both reproductive and therapeutic.

Washington and the Vatican are the most ardent defenders of a total global ban on human cloning.

The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush believes that from the moment of conception, an embryo is a human being and with all the attendant rights and privileges, who therefore must not be destroyed or killed.

On Monday, September 23, government representatives at the UN began a week-long meeting to lay ground rules for negotiations.

The meeting grouped members of an ad hoc committee, set up by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2001, to prepare the agenda for talks expected to start next year.

The committee met for the first time in February to recommend which legal issues should be addressed in the future convention.

The Lithuanian parliament on Thursday, September 19, ratified a Council of Europe convention banning the cloning of humans, the assembly's information service said.

The 1997 "convention for the protection of human rights and dignity of the human being with regard to application of biology and medicine" and its 1998 additional protocol prohibiting the cloning of human beings were backed unanimously by Lithuanian lawmakers.

To date 31 countries have ratified the convention, while the protocol has been ratified in 29 states. The Council of Europe is a pan-European rights and democracy watchdog.

A few days earlier on September 13, a draft law banning human cloning and preventing parents choosing the sex of a unborn baby, except on serious medical grounds, was presented to the Greek parliament.

The bill is designed to close the gaps in Greek legislation on artificial insemination, and bans the use of "superfluous" human ova except for therapeutic or research reasons.

"Straightforward artificial insemination and fertilization" are acceptable but only with the written consent of the parties involved, it says.

Doctors seek written consent as a matter of course but it is currently not a legal requirement.

In a radical change in Greek society's attitude to single-parent families, the bill says unmarried women have the right to artificial insemination -- but only under certain circumstances.

Under the bill, artificial insemination "after the death of a woman's husband or a male partner with whom she cohabits" will only be permitted if strict criteria are fulfilled, including having the explicit consent of the late male partner.

And implanting a woman's egg into another woman's womb will require authorization from a judge.

Speaking on the issue of human cloning, IslamOnline’s fatwa desk said: “The Qur’an contains no proofs concerning the possibility of human beings creating another human being, but there are proofs with regard to the disability of all creatures to create anything.

“Cloning, however, is not creation of a human being, but it is the growing of a cell in such a way that makes it another creature. Thus it is not creation out of nothing but growing of an already created cell, just as a seed that is planted by a farmer. This is because a cell contains all the components of the source from which it is taken. This is permissible as far as plants and animals are concerned. As for man, it is not permissible because, if permitted, there will appear typical created clones, among children, wives, etc., as well as hygienic and ethical evils.”

Prominent Muslim scholar, Dr. Yousef al Qaradawi issued a fatwa on the subject saying: “Genetic engineering has only proven to be a nightmare since animal cloning was carried out and then applied on the famous sheep, Dolly.

Animal cloning has become a nightmare scenario for many people all over the world, as they have premonitions of it being practiced on human beings.”

While he reassured the importance of scientific progress and research in Islam, Al Qaradawi said that this progress, like everything in life, must not collide with faith. It must move in parallel with the limitations set by religion, which must prevail over man’s course of life and customize it according to its principles.

He said that animal cloning is permissible only if it brings about a real benefit to all people, does not result in harm which is greater than the benefit it has produced, and must not bear any kind of harm to the animal used in the process.

However, human cloning, he said is completely prohibited for a number of reasons:

1-It contradicts with diversity of creation.

Allah has created the universe on the base of diversity while human cloning is based on duplicating the same characteristics of the original bodies. This bears great corruption to human life, even though we did not realize all its forms. For example, if a student of a cloned class did something wrong, how could a teacher identify him/her while the whole class had the same features?

2-If human cloning is permitted, how will we determine the relation of the cloned in regard to the original - will he be his brother, his father, or even himself? This is a confusing point.

3-Cloning contradicts with the pattern of creating things in pairs. , as Allah said in His Glorious Qur’an “And of everything We have created pairs, that ye may receive instruction.” (Az-Zariyat: 49). Cloning goes against this principle since it depends on only one gender. And this matter will cause harm to people.

4-Knowing that man cannot live alone even in Paradise, Allah, the Exalted and Glorified, created Hawwa’ (Eve) along with Adam to stay with him in Paradise, and thus they would be a source of love and intimacy to one another. It is not only parents who need one another in order to proceed with life, but also their offspring need them both. All these meanings can never be acquired through cloning.