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Full human clones ‘a matter of time’ The
Times.co.za UN report calls for action to prevent human rights crisis. Unless the world bans human cloning it may be just a matter of time until we share the Earth with exact copies. This is according to a major UN policy analysis released this morning. The report’s authors propose outlawing human reproductive cloning while allowing restricted therapeutic cloning as the most viable “compromise” option for the international community to adopt. South Africa’s proposed regulations on cloning are in line with this compromise: permitting the use of human eggs to create stem cells for therapeutic and research purposes — but still prohibiting reproductive cloning.
Professor Jacquie Greenberg, the associate professor with the Human Genetics Research Group at UCT, says: “The guidelines are specifically for stem cell use which is what the debate pivots around.” The Health Department is expected to finalise its regulations on therapeutic cloning, which are governed by the National Health Act, by the end of this year. A deadlock over cloning at a UN General Assembly in 2005 blocked the adoption of an international convention and resulted instead in the non-binding UN Declaration on Cloning.
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