Bush Administration Proposes Total Ban on Human Cloning.(Brief Article)

By Dave Andrusko

Although it was early in discussions that could go on for perhaps years, the United States immediately made clear it desires a "global and comprehensive ban" on human cloning and all experimentation involving human embryos. The Bush Administration's unequivocal opposition to all human cloning was conveyed in remarks delivered by Carolyn Willson, the U.S. delegate to the United Nation's Committee on an International Convention Against the Reproductive Cloning of Human Beings.

In a February 26 speech, Willson politely thanked the French and German governments "for taking the initiative on human cloning," and then proceeded to carefully explain why the ban needed to be expanded to include so-called "therapeutic cloning." (See excerpts, "Human Cloning...Unethical in Itself and Dangerous as a Precedent".)

Most governments to date adamantly oppose what is described as "reproductive cloning" - - which Willson accurately described as "prohibiting the transfer of a cloned embryo into a woman to begin a pregnancy." But Willson labeled this limited approach "unsound," listing a number of philosophical and pragmatic objections.

A ban "that prohibited only `reproductive' cloning, but left `therapeutic' or `experimental' cloning unaddressed, would essentially authorize the creation and destruction of human embryos explicitly and solely for research and experimentation," Willson said. "It would turn nascent human life into a natural resource to be mined and exploited, eroding the sense of the worth and dignity of the individual. This prospect is repugnant to many people, including those who do not believe that the embryo is a person."

Willson also told the committee that a ban which, on the one hand, allows the creation of embryonic clones, but, on the other hand, forbids their implantation "legally requires the destruction of nascent human life and criminalizes efforts to preserve and protect it once ...