France Calls for Urgent Ban on Human Cloning

Dec. 12, 2002

PARIS - French President Jacques Chirac today said he hoped the United Nations would ban the cloning of human beings "as quickly as possible", a government spokesman said.
The official, Jean-Francois Cope, said Chirac made the comment during a cabinet meeting, in which he also told ministers: "I'm very worried about the perspective of a possible human clone".

France intended to play a leading role in opposing human reproduction through such science, Cope added.

Around six pregnancies resulting from cloned human embryos have been reported in the US and Italy, and scientists expect the world's first human cloned baby to be born sometime early next year.

The implications of such a breakthrough would be enormous, and would likely further stir the anger and fear of opponents who see the door opening to a future of "modified" human beings, organ banks for the rich and the breakdown of family and social structures.

The French government is scheduled to put an amended bioethics bill to a parliamentary vote next year that would restrict medical and scientific practices in the fields of cloning, genetics and organ donation.

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