Criminalise human cloning, says new group

A newly-formed international consortium of scientists and lawyers has launched a bid to have human reproductive cloning declared a crime against humanity.

The Human Cloning Policy Institute (HCPI), which counts eminent Australian researcher Alan Trounson as one of its members, has asked the International Court of Justice to hand down an opinion criminalising human cloning.

The World Court Initiative proposal has been sent to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and is backed by leading scientists including cloning pioneer Ian Wilmut, MIT professor Rudolf Jaenisch, and other leading scientists, physicians and law experts from around the world.

It comes as attempts to get a UN treaty banning human reproductive cloning collapsed this week, in the wake of a push backed by the US to ban all human cloning including therapeutic cloning and embryonic stem cell research.

The proposal cites legal sources including the Nuremburg Code, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNESCO's Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights, the World Health Assembly of WHO, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, among others.

The aim, says HCPI founder and executive director Bernard Siegal, is to ensure there is no safe haven for any would-be human cloners. "The World Court is the ultimate authority on international law and an opinion from the court would bring a very strong legal and moral force to bear against the would-be cloners," said Siegal.

Trounson, Australia's most prominent stem cell researcher, is one of the backers of the initiative and a member of its scientific advisory board.

In a statement, he said reproductive scientists welcomed the proposal. "The continued claims by a small group of individuals of covert attempts of successful human reproductive cloning must be opposed and actively discouraged by all sensible members of the global community," he said.

Fuelled by cult claims

The initiative got its start through trial attorney Siegal's actions, who earlier this year sued Clonaid, a spin-off of the Raelian cult, over its claims that it had cloned the first human.

"When I sued Clonaid, it was a matter of child advocacy -- I was trying to protect a child that could be in danger," Siegal told Australian Biotechnology News.

His interactions with Clonaid convinced Siegal that the company's claims were a hoax, but as a result of the action, he realised that there was a need for an advocacy organisation aimed at curbing would-be human cloners, while preserving therapeutic cloning.

The newly formed HCPI, which will act in part as a clearing-house of information on individuals trying to clone humans for reproductive purposes, and in part as an organisation involved in formulation of public policy in the field, rejects human reproductive cloning but supports therapeutic cloning and stem cell research.

Improving the public understanding of the contentious issue is also a priority for the Institute, which is setting up a "rapid response team" of scientists willing to speak out publicly against attempts to clone human beings, as well as in support of legitimate scientific research efforts involving therapeutic cloning and stem cells.

"To think that research could be criminalised due to a lack of understanding is terrible," said Siegal.