Meetings of the UN’s legal committee have been packed to the rafters as it once again considers a worldwide ban on human cloning. But like the two previous attempts, the latest effort is likely to end in failure.
All countries support a ban on human reproductive cloning, the creation of babies genetically identical to their “parent”. The divisive issue, as always, is therapeutic cloning – using an individual’s cells to create a genetically identical embryo that could then be destroyed to obtain embryonic stem cells for treating the individual. In September, the scientific academies of 63 countries issued a joint…
