Dec 9, 2003 / 22:00 pm
A new effort by Costa Rica on Tuesday to obtain a total ban on human cloning—with the support of the United States—was successful as an agreement by consensus was established that obliges the UN to debate the issue in 10 months, instead of postponing the debate for 2 years according to proposals by some European Union countries.
On December 9, the UN General Assembly decided by consensus to address in its next session, which will begin in September, 2004, the question of whether to pass a resolution that would ban human cloning.
The decision was made after Costa Rica—with the support of the United States—began a new offensive to get the UN to urgently work towards the establishment of an international agreement to ban all types of human cloning, including cloning for research purposes.
The United Kingdom, France, Germany and Belgium support so-called “therapeutic cloning,” which would allow for the creation and use of live human beings in embryonic form.