UN deadlock defeats cloning ban

After a number of delays and much maneuvering and politicking, a deadlocked United Nations has finally defeated a ban on therapeutic (research) cloning. The defeat is a blow to the Bush Administration, which has tried for years to get the international body to throw its weight behind a ban on the technology. While almost all nations support a ban on human reproductive cloning -- cloning procedures that result in a living child -- many nations support the use of cloning technology for medical research. In fact, much of the research goes on in the United States, and a three billion dollar bond issue in California promises to keep the US in the forefront of such research, unless our more conservative Congress passes a US ban.

UN Cloning Situation UPDATED

Leave it to the Christian Science Monitor to produce the first thoughtful description of the current state of the UN debate concerning the several versions of proposed international bans on several kinds of cloning technologies. UPDATE: The vote has stalled again as New Scientist reports in this great piece.