United Nations Urges Human Rights for Clones

BY Annalee Newitz

Now that human clones are everywhere, how should we treat them? It’s not just Clonaid asking anymore. The United Nations has just released a policy report saying that if we cannot reach global consensus on banning human cloning, we’ll have to cope with a world full of human clones. And you know what that means. We could be facing a massive Clone Lib movement! So what does the most powerful body of international wonkitude recommend we do about the coming clone peril?

Says Brendan Tobin of the Irish Center for Human Rights, an author of the report:

“Failure to outlaw reproductive cloning means it is just a matter of time until cloned individuals share the planet. If failure to compromise continues, the world community must accept responsibility and ensure that any cloned individual receives full human rights protection. It will also need to embark on an extensive awareness building and sensitivity program to ensure that the wider society treats clones with respect and ensure they are protected against prejudice, abuse or discrimination.

Most of the report urges the international community to set up better laws against human reproductive cloning, essentially threatening them with the stick of having to take sensitivity training to deal with clone co-workers. I guess the worst thing that the UN can imagine is another minority group demanding its rights. They also talk about the two main arguments against human reproductive cloning: religious concerns, and fear of commoditizing human life. (They leave out what to me seems like the most important issue, which is that making a human clone is essentially to experiment on a human subject without permission.)

No matter how you slice it, the UN document is pretty damn anti-clone. For a less clone-phobic legal analysis of clone rights, check out law professor Kerry MacIntosh’s book Illegal Beings: Human Clones and the Law (Cambridge University Press). At least she offers several legal methods to assert civil rights for clones.

http://youtu.be/cjq5asEYjts

New Report! Human Reproductive Cloning ( by UN University)

This report evaluates the responses of the United Nations to the questions of human cloning governance. The difference between reproductive human cloning and use of cloning technology for research is explained followed by an ethical analysis of cloning.

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Discussion of ethics at the UN level often brings to mind the notion of deep, profound, commonly held principles to guide human actions. While general ethical principles, such as the principle of doing no harm in medical practice, are widely respected, the question of what amounts to harm is less easily defined. The debate on reproductive and research cloning has demonstrated the diversity of ethical beliefs. It is interesting, for instance, that while there is an almost complete consensus amongst countries with regard to the need to ban reproductive cloning, a number of academics and some religious groups do not necessarily believe that such cloning is unethical. The analysis of the ethical considerations revolves around the questions of – human dignity, what is natural, human health, social justice, freedom of research and choices.

The Formation of Customary International Law is reviewed, and the report concludes that an analysis of existing municipal legislation on cloning indicates strong evidence of state practice and opinio juris supporting the prohibition of reproductive cloning. In the case of reproductive cloning, over 50 countries have legislated to ban reproductive cloning and there is no country that legislated to allow the practice.

Future options for international governance of cloning could include further work by UNESCO IBC on the issue of reproductive and research cloning, in the context of resolution A/RES/59/280 and also in the context of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, which was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on the 19^th of October 2005. The UN GA Sixth committee takes up the issue of customary international law on cloning. The current status quo is one option, but the report presents discussion relevant to the different options that exist to establish temporary moratorium, total bans or to leave the decision to the national governments. The report hopes to contribute to dissemination, discussion and debate on cloning issues at the international level, so that all countries including the developing and least developed countries can participate and put forward their concerns regarding this new technology. This issue however is one that affects all of humanity, and the report is intended to provide a basis on which the international community may wish to revisit the issue of human cloning, at a time which may be not too distant.