UN Committee Endorses Anti-Cloning Resolution.

In a major triumph almost completely ignored by the major media, the United Nations' deadlock over cloning was broken February 18 when the UN's Legal Committee voted 71-35 with 43 abstentions to accept a declaration calling on all nations to enact laws prohibiting all forms of human cloning.

The UN Declaration on Human Cloning called on member states "to prohibit all forms of human cloning inasmuch as they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life."

Supporters are hopeful the vote will provide momentum to proposals in the United States Congress to ban all forms of human cloning.

"We're obviously very pleased," Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, told the Associated Press. "This means that the United Nations is stating very clearly that member states should adopt legislation outlawing all cloning practices."

President Bush's strong position against cloning was made crystal clear in a speech he delivered to the UN last September.

"In this session, the UN will consider a resolution sponsored by Costa Rica calling for a comprehensive ban on human cloning," the President said. "I support that resolution, and I urge all governments to affirm a basic ethical principle: no human life should ever be produced and destroyed for the benefit of another."

Following the vote, Costa Rica's UN Ambassador Bruno Stagno told reporters, "We reaffirmed protection of human life as a principle on which you can make no compromises. ... When we speak about the protection of human life in this case, we are speaking about the most vulnerable, that is the embryo."