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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 28, 2001

Chinese, French Experts Call for Int'l Ban on Human Cloning

A group of Chinese and Frenchexperts attending a symposium on human cloning Tuesday in Shanghai called on the international community to promulgate an international convention to ban human cloning as soon as possible.


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Cloning still to prove itself
A group of Chinese and Frenchexperts attending a symposium on human cloning Tuesday in Shanghai called on the international community to promulgate an international convention to ban human cloning as soon as possible.

"The situation of the human being is critical, as human cloningis doomed to happen due to the development of science and technology," said Prof. Xu Zongliang, an expert from the southern research center of China's national team on the study of human genome, at the symposium "Human Cloning: Law and Society."

Without a powerful international restriction, it is too difficult to prevent some business people or scientists from carrying out human cloning, the Chinese expert noted.

Other speakers, including a professor from France, supported Xu's view, calling for an international code of ethics in the field.

Shanghai-based Fudan University and the First University of Paris in France have launched a three-year joint study on law and society concerning human cloning. Over 30 Chinese and French experts attended the symposium.



Why ban human cloning?
Most mainstream scientists are set against attempts at reproductive human cloning, including Ian Wilmut, the British embryologist who led the team which cloned Dolly the sheep, and Richard Gardner, who chaired a Royal Society working group on human cloning. The most persuasive argument is that the risks are far too great at present. It is feared that human cloning would be cruel, because the process may result in a large number of miscarriages and deformities before a human could be successfully cloned. For instance, it took 272 attempts to create Dolly. Even then, the child could not be guaranteed ongoing good health.

As Prof Gardner put it: "Our experience with animals suggests that there would be a very real danger of creating seriously handicapped individuals if anybody tries to implant cloned human embryos into the womb."

Many religious groups, including some Roman Catholic and Muslim organisations, also object to cloning. There are many ethical arguments for a ban, including fears that cloning humans will lead to "designer babies" with genetic traits selected by their parents, or a black market for embryos, and the creation of a "genetic underclass".
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