International response to human cloning.

I. INTRODUCTION In September of 2001, the United Nations placed the topic of human cloning on its agenda at the request of France and Germany. These countries hope that negotiations regarding human cloning will prompt the UN to adopt "an international legal instrument banning the reproductive cloning of human beings."1 Currently, scientists can travel to one of the many countries lacking restrictions on cloning and attempt to clone humans without facing legal repercussions. An international regulatory regime, therefore, seems necessary if a prohibition on cloning is to be effective.2 An international treaty banning human cloning may not be the perfect solution; it will probably lack universal acceptance, and it will take years to create. However, the development of such a treaty will initiate an international discussion regarding the consequences of human cloning, and the enforcement of such a treaty will inevitably lead to some international regulation of cloning technology. I conclude that the benefits of creating and enforcing a treaty banning the reproductive cloning of human beings outweigh its possible weaknesses. II. CURRENT CLONING LAWS At present, there is significant agreement among the countries which have addressed the topic of human cloning that the practice should be banned; however, not all of these countries have been able to enact and enforce laws to effect such a ban. The United States is a prime example of a country that has taken up the debate regarding human cloning but has yet to do much else. President Bush has been vocal on the topic of human cloning. In August 2001, the President announced that federal funds could be used for research on embryonic stem-cell lines already in existence.3 Then, after learning that researchers had cloned human embryos at Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. ("ACT") in Worcester, Massachusetts, the President qualified his earlier announcement by stating that "[t]he use of embryos to clone is wrong"; society should not "grow life to destroy it."4 President Bush's stance on cloning roughly corresponds to that of the US House of Representatives. In July 2001, the House, by a 265-to-162 vote, passed a bill criminalizing the creation of cloned embryos for reproductive or research purposes; the bill carries with it a fine of $1 million and up to 10 years in prison.5 Unlike the House, the US Senate is divided as to whether it should ban all cloning, or ban only reproductive cloning.6 Thus, despite the President's and Congress Is interest in banning cloning, there are no laws regulating human cloning research in the United States. The situation in Great Britain and Ireland is similar to that in the US. In Ireland, there are no laws preventing privately funded groups from engaging in human cloning.7 Britain is in a comparable position even though it created a law on embryology in 1990 that was intended to prohibit reproductive cloning.8 On November 15, 2001, Britain's high court ruled that an organism created by cloning was not an embryo such that it could be regulated under the 1990 Embryology Act. 9 The British government is presently working to close the newly discovered loophole allowing reproductive cloning; it introduced an emergency bill that purports to ban human cloning, and it appealed the decision of the high court.10 It remains to be seen whether the emergency bill will actually ban the reproductive cloning of human beings, or whether Britain will, like the US, remain a safe haven for human cloning. Not all countries interested in banning human cloning have been unsuccessful, however. Japan enacted a ban on human cloning which provides that violators can serve up to ten years in prison.11 Japan's law specifically "forbids scientists from producing embryos created by implanting a cell into an unfertil[iz]ed egg deprived of a nucleus."12 Israel has likewise enacted a ban on human cloning. Israel's five-year-long ban, ending in December of 2003, prohibits cloning, multiplying, or creating a human being with the same genetic makeup as another human being. …