Aggregated News
The United Nations has failed once again to reach a conclusion on a global ban on human cloning following two days of impassioned testimony from member nations.
A UN spokesperson says a decision may be made by early November, but others say that any resolution is doomed to fail because the organisation is so bitterly divided.
The debate, held at the UN headquarters in New York, on Thursday and Friday, was generally split in two camps. About 60 countries, including the US, support a Costa Rican proposal to ban all human cloning.
But about 20 nations, including the UK and Japan, along with UN secretary general Kofi Annan, back a more flexible Belgian proposition. That plan would outlaw reproductive cloning but allow each nation to draft its own laws about therapeutic cloning, whereby cells from cloned embryos are used for medical research but not to produce cloned babies.
Even if a decision is made by November, it could simply be an agreement to postpone the vote, as has happened before. Unnamed diplomats have told reporters that any movement is unlikely...
A UN spokesperson says a decision may be made by early November, but others say that any resolution is doomed to fail because the organisation is so bitterly divided.
The debate, held at the UN headquarters in New York, on Thursday and Friday, was generally split in two camps. About 60 countries, including the US, support a Costa Rican proposal to ban all human cloning.
But about 20 nations, including the UK and Japan, along with UN secretary general Kofi Annan, back a more flexible Belgian proposition. That plan would outlaw reproductive cloning but allow each nation to draft its own laws about therapeutic cloning, whereby cells from cloned embryos are used for medical research but not to produce cloned babies.
Even if a decision is made by November, it could simply be an agreement to postpone the vote, as has happened before. Unnamed diplomats have told reporters that any movement is unlikely...