NEW YORK — After three years of trying, U.N. member countries have given up attempting to craft a treaty to outlaw reproductive cloning of humans, and are likely to settle on a vaguely worded declaration leaving countries to go their own ways.
For years, the effort has been stymied by differences between countries that want to outlaw all human cloning and those that would permit limited cloning for scientific research.
As the latest round of closed-door negotiations proceeded last night, differences were growing instead of narrowing, said diplomats and U.N. officials who have been monitoring the proceedings.
A self-imposed deadline had required that the text of an agreement be completed by today, but diplomats said another extension is likely.
“It’s not going to happen” by today, said Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York.
The injunction against reproductive cloning of humans has universal support.
But more than two dozen nations ” including Britain, Singapore and South Africa ” want to protect nascent scientific research into Parkinson’s, leukemia and other diseases.
The most promising research is based on therapeutic cloning of stem cells, and many countries that support such research have advanced biotech industries.
More than 60 nations ” including the United States, Costa Rica and Uganda ” want a total ban on the practice. Most of these countries are from the developing world, and many are predominately Roman Catholic.
The Vatican, which has observer status in the United Nations but does not vote, has been an active lobbyist for an absolute ban.
The disagreement has derailed attempts to draft a legally binding treaty that, in principle, could slam the door on therapeutic cloning.
Diplomats on the U.N. General Assembly’s legal committee have been working quietly all week to find a compromise, largely based on language Italy circulated last month.
“They were getting pretty close last night,” said one official. “But then they went back to capitals [for advice,] and today they were far apart again.”
The language proposed by Italy would allow cloning in nations that permit such research, while encouraging all countries to “prohibit applications of genetic engineering techniques that may be contrary to human dignity.”
Nations siding with the Costa Rica-led effort to outlaw all cloning activities include Albania, Australia, Ivory Coast, Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, St. Lucia, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan and Tuvalu.
Those that favor the Belgium-led effort to win exemptions for medical research include Belarus, Belgium, Cuba, Denmark, Greece, Japan, Sweden and Turkey.
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