News

Statement by Academy President Bruce Alberts on Renewed U.S.Debate on a Proposed Global Ban on Cloning Research

December 8, 2003

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has joined 66 other members of the InterAcademy Panel, a worldwide organization of science academies, in asking the United Nations General Assembly to refrain from again taking up a proposed resolution that would call upon nations to outlaw all research on cloning, whether it be for therapeutic or human reproductive purposes. After an earlier failed attempt to do so, the government of Costa Rica intends to reintroduce such a resolution this week.

In our view, a worldwide ban on human reproductive cloning — a technique that attempts to generate a child genetically identical to an existing adult — clearly is justified. However, this ban should not be extended to the use of eggs and early embryos to produce stem cells for use in medical research — sometimes called "therapeutic cloning" — which is very different and represents an important approach to developing new therapies in the future. These conclusions are contained in two major National Academies studies: Stem Cells and the Future of Regenerative Medicine (2001) and Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Reproductive Cloning (2002).

On Nov. 6, 2003, the United Nations Legal Committee voted to support a motion by Iran to delay any decision on a worldwide resolution on human cloning until 2005. That delay ended the earlier debate on the Costa Rican resolution as well as consideration of a second resolution by Belgium which, while appropriately calling for an immediate ban on human reproductive cloning, would leave it to member states to adopt their own national policies with regard to how human eggs can be manipulated in other ways.

Although still in its infancy, research on embryonic stem cells produced from cloned cells has the potential to foster new therapies that could aid millions of people suffering from diseases such as diabetes or Parkinson's Disease, or spinal cord injuries. Healthy tissue grown from such stem cells may someday be able to take the place of diseased or damaged tissue, without immune rejection. But a great deal of research on human embryonic stem cells will be needed to make this possible. There is a great diversity of cultural and religious views about this area of scientific work. A respect for such differences requires that each nation retain the right to make its own decision on how such research should be carried out.

The resolution passed by the InterAcademy Panel (IAP) at its Dec. 4, 2003, meeting in Mexico City states:

Members of the InterAcademy Panel, gathered for their General Assembly at the Mexican Academy of Sciences, are deeply concerned by an apparent proposal to move a vote at the U.N. General Assembly on Monday 8 December to ban all forms of human cloning. The IAP is the global consortium of the world's national academies of science. Sixty-six National Academies, from all parts of the world and all cultural traditions, under the leadership of the IAP, called in September 2003 for a global ban on human reproductive cloning as a matter of urgency. Crucially, however, the 66 Academies also called for policies on the acceptability of cloning for research and therapeutic purposes to be excluded from the global ban and to be determined at the national level. In doing this, the Academies recognized both the diversity of views on this difficult issue and the great medical potential of research on stem cells and cloning. This position was partially upheld by the U.N. Legal Committee on 6 November 2003, when a proposal to ban all forms of human cloning was put into abeyance for two years. We call upon the U.N. to stand by the decision of 6 November, to heed IAP's clear expression of global scientific consensus, and not to jeopardize the potential and far-reaching medical benefits that may arise from cloning for research and therapeutic purposes.