U.N. human cloning treaty likely delayed for a year

UNITED NATIONS -- American and Vatican differences with France and Germany have delayed work on drafting a U.N. treaty against human cloning for at least a year.

The General Assembly adopted a resolution Tuesday that rubber-stamped a decision by its legal committee to have a working group tackle the issue again next October.

The dispute focuses on how broad a ban on cloning should be.

Opposing Germans

The United States, the Vatican and several other nations want a treaty which bans all forms of cloning human cells. France and Germany want one that would ban only cloning to produce babies, leaving the question of cloning for research and medical experiments for future consideration.

A year ago, the General Assembly adopted a resolution setting up a group to draft a convention on human cloning. The treaty should "prevent practices which are contrary to human dignity," it said. But the working group has reached a deadlock.

The French and Germans said they proposed a two-step approach because there is strong international support for a worldwide ban on cloning babies, but less support for a ban on "therapeutic" cloning for research and medical purposes.

But U.S. representative Ralph Martinez told the General Assembly on Tuesday that "the United States and many other member states support a total ban on human cloning."

"We believe that the growing support for a total ban signals that a course correction is underway and that the trend toward a total ban will forge a clear path toward a convention to prohibit all coming of human embryos," he said.

A statement by France and Germany on Nov. 7 said it was "regrettable" that the group couldn't reach a compromise on drafting a treaty against cloning human beings while negotiations continued on other forms of cloning.

"France and Germany are ready to further engage in broad-based substantial negotiations, and we hope others are too, with a clear sense of urgency and with a non-dogmatic view on what is feasible in the short term, and what is not," said the statement, delivered by German diplomat Christian Much.

A German diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday this wasn't "Germany vs. the United States," but "a different approach to reach the same goal, which is to ban human cloning."

The General Assembly's decision "should not be misinterpreted by those scientists or others going for cloning of babies ... as a green light to go ahead," the diplomat warned.

Scientists who support cloning for medical purposes say they hope to use stem cells from human embryos to find cures for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other debilitating diseases. Stem cells, which are found in human embryos, umbilical cords and placentas, have not yet differentiated into any of the 220 cell types that make up the human body and so can divide and turn into any kind of cell in the body.

The Roman Catholic church and anti-abortion groups say stem cell research is tantamount to murder because it starts with the destruction of a human embryo.

This year, President Bush restricted federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research to a select number of existing cells already harvested.