Overview of world human cloning policies

Many countries, in formal explanations of their votes, expressed disappointment that there was no consensus on the language of the declaration and said that it was regrettable that it did not cover the well-known differences between reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning (somatic cell nuclear transfer). The original mandate to the Legal Committee was to elaborate on the issue in an international treaty against human reproductive cloning. Instead, text of the declaration blurred the line separating reproductive and therapeutic cloning.

Council of europe

The Council of Europe is an international organization of 46 countries in Europe, which was established in 1949. The Council was set up to defend human rights and democracy, develop continent-wide agreements to standardize social and legal practices and promote European interests. Membership to the Council is open to all European democracies, which accept the principle of the rule of law and guarantee fundamental human rights and freedoms to their citizens.

The Council of Europe has several conventions that can be applied to human embryonic stem cell research and human cloning. The Council’s 1997 Convention on Human Rights with Regard to Biomedicine highlights the“need to respect the human being both as an individual and as a member of the human species.”The protocol on cloning states that“any intervention seeking to create a human being genetically identical to another human being, whether living or dead is prohibited.”While this specifically bans reproductive cloning it does not necessarily ban therapeutic cloning. The Council left the interpretation of‘human being’to national Parliaments, allowing therapeutic cloning where it is accepted. In several European countries without specific stem cell or cloning legislation (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyrus, Moldova, Romania, and San Marino) this convention is interpreted to mean that they allow human embryonic stem cell cloning, but ban both reproductive and therapeutic cloning.

European union

The European Union is an intergovernmental and supranational union containing 25 member states from Europe. It was established in 1950 by six countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) and dealt with economic and trade issues. It now has an additional 19 member states (Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia) for a total of approximately 450 million people and deals with a wide range of issues including health, the environment, and international peace and stability.

The European Union supports funding embryonic stem cell research (where permitted), but has banned the funding of human cloning. There is no legal ban on therapeutic cloning, but the European Union will not fund research using SCNT to create embryos. It allows for countries to determine within their border what embryonic stem cell research can be funded allowing that it is carefully regulated, peer reviewed, scientifically sound, directed towards sustainable goals, and ethically sound.

References and further suggested readings

• The Database of Global Policies on Human Cloning and Germ-line Engineering: (External Link)
• Global Lawyers and Physician for Human Rights: (External Link)
• Stem Cell Policy: World Stem Cell Map: www.mbbnet.umn.edu/scmap.html
• European Commission, Directorate General–Research: Survey on opinions from National Ethics Committees or similar bodies, public debate, and national legislation in relation to human embryonic stem cell research and use. Volume I: EU Member States, July 2004: (External Link) , Volume II: Countries associated to FP6 and Third Countries, July 2004: (External Link)
• UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). National Legislation Concerning Human Reproductive and Therapeutic Cloning, July 2004: (External Link)
• The International Stem Cell Forum (May 2007) http://www.stemcellforum.org
• The Hinxton Group World Policies Website (May 2007): http://hinxtongroup.org/wp.html
• The Hinxton Group Consensus Statement, March 2006: (External Link) .
• The Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute. (March 2006) International Policy Trends: Embryonic Stem Cell Research.

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