the united nations condemns all forms of human cloning

the united nations' general assembly has recently announced that it has issued a declaration condemning all forms of human cloning "as they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life." the declaration passed with 84 nations in favor to 34 against, with 37 abstentions. the united states voted in favor of the declaration. carolyn willson, minister counselor for legal affairs on human cloning gave the US' explanation for its vote.

one of the reasons for the votes against this declaration is that some nations wanted a stronger prohibition--a ban--on all forms of human cloning. while others, such as the uk, japan, belgium, norway, france, and south korea voted against because the declaration failed to explicitly allow therapeutic cloning.

what is telling is that if one reads the explanations from some of these member states for their votes against, they recognize the indignity brought about by a reproductive cloning process, which would create a cloned human. however, they fail to see the indignity from therapeutic cloning which necessitates the destruction of embryos so as to harvest stem cells from them for research. interesting.

in any case, this declaration is non-binding and carries no legal force.