China, Britain, Belgium, France and other countries supporting therapeutic cloning voted against it. In their speeches after the vote, the representatives of these countries pointed out that they voted against it because the wording of this declaration against human cloning was too vague and could easily be misunderstood as banning both reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning research. They reiterated that this statement is not legally binding and their country will continue to allow therapeutic cloning research.
■ Differences:
Therapeutic cloning can benefit mankind.
Embryo is also life and should be respected.
Where are the differences among countries on the issue of human cloning? Professor Li Lingshong, director of the Stem Cell Research Center of Peking University and chief scientist of the National Stem Cell 973 Program, stressed in an interview that to explain the differences, we must first distinguish two concepts about cloning technology: reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning.
The so-called cloning technology is to put the nucleus of an animal somatic cell into an egg and make it develop into a cloned blastocyst for cloning research.
The biggest difference between reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning is the different application purposes. Reproductive cloning is to put a blastocyst into the reproductive tract of an animal or a human at the stage of its formation, with the aim of giving birth to a complete human-this is called "cloning". In fact, therapeutic cloning is to destroy the blastocyst after its formation, only take out embryonic stem cells from it, differentiate into various functional cells of human beings, and then rebuild human tissues and even transplant organs, thus achieving the purpose of treating diseases.
In recent years, because some international organizations and scholars claim that they are engaged in the research of "human cloning", and even claim that "human cloning" has been born, although many people doubt its authenticity, it often causes an uproar in academic and political circles in various countries. Because of the fear of ethical shock and confusion caused by cloning, a panic about human cloning has spread rapidly around the world.
Obviously, reproductive cloning technology for the purpose of "human cloning" is opposed by all countries in the world because it violates the relationship between people. However, the therapeutic cloning technology with the main purpose of treating diseases and saving lives has become a watershed between the two opposing camps.
China, Britain, Sweden, Japan and other countries believe that therapeutic cloning has a very broad prospect in treating various difficult human diseases. As long as it is strictly managed and made good use of, it can completely benefit mankind. Therefore, therapeutic cloning should not be banned.
However, some countries, mainly the United States, insist that even embryos in experimental stage are life and should be respected. In addition, only by completely banning all forms of human cloning research and completely plugging the loopholes of "human cloning" can we prevent some organizations and individuals with ulterior motives from exploiting loopholes.
■ Background:
The thorny dispute led to the stranding of international conventions.
We can only end with this political declaration.
According to reports, the earliest international document to clarify the attitude towards cloning was1the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights adopted by the UNESCO General Conference in 1997. However, due to the lack of legal binding force, the declaration has not played a guiding role in national legislation.
200 1 12, France and Germany requested the United Nations to draft an international convention prohibiting human reproductive cloning, and the United Nations Legal Committee began to consider this issue. Since then, an international debate on whether to completely ban human cloning research has begun.
Professor Li Lingshong told reporters that a total ban on human cloning experiments and related embryonic stem cell research was first proposed by the United States, Spain, the Vatican and other countries at the United Nations Conference against Human Cloning in February 2002. However, most participating countries, such as Germany, France and China, made it clear that only reproductive cloning, that is, human cloning experiments, and therapeutic cloning research aimed at treating diseases and saving lives are prohibited. There was a heated debate at that time.
In recent years, various organizations claim that "human cloning" has come out, which has brought great impact to all countries. One view is that only by completely blocking the "loophole" of human cloning can we prevent some organizations and individuals with ulterior motives from taking advantage of it. Therefore, the call for a total ban on human cloning research is growing. It is against this background that some countries, such as Germany, gradually turned from their original attitudes to a total ban on human cloning research, while other countries that originally supported therapeutic cloning began to retreat from their original positions.
However, it is difficult to unify the differences after all, and the idea that countries originally intended to draft an international convention with legal effect can only be stranded. After three years of heated debate, they finally reached a non-legally binding political declaration-the United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning.
■ China attitude:
Explicitly oppose reproductive cloning
Continuing therapeutic cloning research
For a long time, China's attitude is very clear. It opposes reproductive cloning, but it does not prohibit the research on therapeutic cloning technology. This attitude is clearly defined in the Ethical Guiding Principles of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research issued by the Ministry of Science and Technology in June 2004.
After the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning, the delegation of China told the media that the reason why China voted against it was not that it opposed the prohibition of human cloning, but that the word "prohibition" in the declaration was easily misunderstood as prohibiting all forms of cloning, including therapeutic cloning, which was inconsistent with China's consistent attitude and was unacceptable to China.
■ Is a fertilized egg or embryo equal to a life?
Professor Li told reporters earlier that it is correct to ban human cloning. The problem is that human cloning research (reproductive cloning) should be distinguished from embryonic stem cell nuclear transplantation research (therapeutic cloning) for treating diseases. A key issue with different attitudes towards the latter is the definition of human beings: is a fertilized egg or embryo equivalent to a life? Understanding this problem is the main difference among countries.
In some countries, including the United States, people think that a fertilized egg or embryo is a life, so the research on human embryonic stem cells, that is, therapeutic cloning, is also ethically unacceptable.
However, China and some other countries believe that life begins after the development or birth of the fetus. At present, some countries, such as China and Britain, have recognized the standard that the nervous system begins to develop after the fertilized egg develops 14 days, and then it has the ability of perception and the embryonic form of life. On the other hand, it is not immoral to conduct therapeutic cloning research with fertilized eggs that have not been developed for more than 14 days.
As early as the beginning of 2004, China promulgated the ethical guiding principles of human embryonic stem cell research, forbidding reproductive cloning research and allowing embryonic stem cell and therapeutic cloning research. Therefore, experts believe that, in essence, the principles of China are not in contradiction with the spirit of the declaration adopted by the General Assembly.
■ Humans may rely on cloning therapy technology to overcome difficult diseases.
In addition, the broad prospect of therapeutic cloning attracts China and other countries to explore continuously.
Professor Li Lingsong told reporters that with the deepening of research, therapeutic cloning technology can become a very important treatment. Therapeutic cloning can make patients' own embryonic stem cells through nuclear transfer. Embryonic stem cells are differentiated cells, which can differentiate into various functional cells in human body. Using such stem cells to differentiate into cells needed by patients and transplant them into patients can avoid the immune rejection of organ transplantation or cell transplantation, which is a major research topic that has not been solved so far in human organ transplantation.
According to this idea, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and other intractable diseases that have not been overcome by human beings may eventually be completely cured by therapeutic cloning technology.
■ What is the motive for the United States to support a total ban on human cloning?
At the same time, some experts expressed doubts about the motivation of the United States to strongly support a total ban on human cloning. Because the scientific research mechanism in the United States pays equal attention to state support and private research, in many cases, private support for scientific research funds is more abundant than state investment. Therefore, once the international convention banning cloning research is adopted, although the domestic investment in cloning research can be restrained, it will still be eagerly expected by a large number of private institutions in the United States who are interested in cloning research and willing to invest a lot of money, and will not be greatly affected. As a matter of fact, there is no law in the United States that explicitly prohibits private institutions from supporting cloning research. On the contrary, once a country like China, which mainly invests in scientific research, signs a legally binding international convention, it will be severely restricted.
For China, which has entered the world advanced level in stem cell research, facing such a broad application market, China certainly does not want to fall behind in such cutting-edge technology.