From: xgl (xli03@emory.edu)
Date: Thu Mar 01 2001 - 17:12:12 MST
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 14:40:02 PST
From: AP <C-ap@clari.net>
Subject: International Cloning Ban Ratified
STRASBOURG, France (AP) -- The first international agreement to
ban human cloning took effect Thursday, when the Council of Europe
said that the legislatures of five nations had ratified a protocol
designed to prevent abuses of the technology.
Legislatures in Slovakia, Slovenia, Greece, Spain and Georgia
ratified a protocol to its Convention on Human Rights and
Biomedicine that was ``the first and only binding international
agreement on cloning,'' the council said.
The measure -- called the Protocol on the Prohibition of Cloning
Human Beings -- was drafted in the 1990s following successful
attempts to clone mammals, particularly by embryo splitting and
nuclear transfer.
The council said it wanted to prevent the technology from being
used on humans.
Twenty-four of the 43 Council of Europe states have signed the
protocol. It took effect after the five legislatures ratified the
text, said the Council of Europe.
Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe is best known for its
1950 Convention on Human Rights -- a charter that is binding on all
council members.
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