European Nations Sign a Treaty Opposing Human Cloning
On January 12, 1998, nineteen European nations signed a treaty in Paris aimed at prohibiting human cloning, a significant move in the ongoing ethical debate surrounding cloning technologies. This decision came in response to American physicist Richard Seed's announcement of plans to open a clinic for human cloning, which raised alarm about potential future practices. The countries involved, members of the Council of Europe, committed to banning any interventions that could create genetically identical human beings, with no exceptions even for sterile couples. Notably, Great Britain and Germany chose not to sign the treaty, reflecting differing national perspectives on cloning; Britain advocated for continued scientific research, while Germany maintained stringent restrictions due to historical concerns linked to Nazi-era eugenics. The treaty also permitted cloning for research purposes, indicating a nuanced approach to the science involved. The treaty's goal was to achieve a global consensus against human cloning, highlighting the complex interplay of ethics, legality, and scientific advancement in this contentious field. As discussions around cloning continued, the treaty underscored the diverse views held by nations on the implications of cloning and the moral responsibilities of modern science.
European Nations Sign a Treaty Opposing Human Cloning
European Nations Sign a Treaty Opposing Human Cloning
Nineteen European countries signed a protocol in Paris, France, on January 12, 1998, prohibiting the cloning of human beings. The protocol was written in response to a public announcement made by physicist Richard Seed of Chicago, Illinois, on January 7, in which he divulged plans to open a clinic that would potentially clone 200,000 babies a year. The 19 nations who signed were members of the Council of Europe. They were Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Norway, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey. Great Britain and Germany refused to sign the agreement, which was to become a part of the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine.
By law, the protocol required the 19 countries to ban “any intervention seeking to create human beings genetically identical to another human being, whether living or dead.” It also ruled out any exception to the ban on cloning, including cases involving sterile couples. It did, however, allow the cloning of cells for research purposes. Britain, a long-time supporter of the scientific right to unobstructed research, was at the helm of cloning research and was therefore unwilling to restrict cloning rights. Germany, by contrast, had already taken an extremely conservative stance on the cloning issue, due to attempts by Nazi scientists in the first half of the 20th century to produce a superior Aryan race through genetic engineering. The German government stated that its anticloning law, which banned all research on human embryos, was even stricter than the protocol's, and therefore there was no reason for them to sign. Although the United States also did not sign, President Bill Clinton did ask Congress for a five-year moratorium on cloning experiments.
The human cloning debate had been fierce, with ethical, legal, and moral questions surrounding it. Human cloning became a significant issue when the first cloned sheep, Dolly, was announced by Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut on February 23, 1997. Scientists had once thought that cloning a person was impossible, but with the successful cloning of Dolly the idea seemed theoretically feasible, despite Wilmut's own belief that human cloning was “offensive.”
The goal of the protocol was to form a worldwide consensus on cloning and ban it so that it could not be done anywhere. France's president Jacques Chirac, a strong supporter of the ban, proclaimed that the protocol was useless if only 19 countries signed because research would continue in countries that legally supported cloning. The debate was sure to escalate as those in support of and in opposition to human cloning continued to lobby their governments to take a stand one way or the other.