日本経済新聞 2004/11/20
国連、クローン禁止条約策定を断念・宣言採択へ
クローン禁止条約をめぐり協議を続けてきた国連総会の第6委員会は会期最終日の19日、全面禁止、部分禁止両派の対立が続く国際条約の策定を断念し、双方の受け入れが可能で拘束力の弱い政治宣言の採択を目指して来年2月に協議を再開することで合意し、閉会した。
全面禁止派は、直前まで条約策定に向け提出した決議案の採決を強行する構えだったが「政治宣言」の形を目指すことで双方は歩み寄り、国際社会の分裂という事態はひとまず回避された。
全面禁止派のイタリアが提出した宣言草案は、加盟国に対し(1)クローン人間づくりの試みと研究の禁止(2)生命科学への適用において人間の尊厳を確実に尊重(3)人間の尊厳に反するような遺伝子工学の適用を禁止する措置―を要求している。米国やコスタリカなどは、医療目的も含むクローン技術の全面禁止を主張。条約策定に向けた特設委員会設置を定めた決議案を9月末に提出。
一方のベルギーや英国、日本などは、禁止の対象をクローンづくりに限定する内容の条約策定を目指し決議案を提出し、10月末から協議を続けてきた。
http://www.cbcj.catholic.jp/jpn/doc/pontifical/clone/
国連における人クローン禁止条約審議では、２種類の人クローン作成が問題になっています。「生殖目的クローニング」(reproductive cloning)は、人クローン個体の産生をめざすもので、これを禁止することについては国際的な合意が得られています。
「治療（研究）目的クローニング」（therapeutic cloning）は、人クローン胚からヒト胚性幹細胞（ＥＳ細胞）を採取して、難病治療に応用することをめざすものです。
国連審議では、生殖目的クローニングと治療目的クローニングの両方の禁止を求めるコスタリカ案（バチカン、アメリカなどが賛成）と、生殖目的クローニングのみを禁止しようとするベルギー案（フランス、ドイツ、日本などが賛成）が提出されています。
コスタリカ案の共同提出国は63か国、ベルギー案の共同提出国は21か国です。
New York Times November
20, 2004
U.S. Drops Effort for Treaty Banning Cloning
Faced with polarizing division in the 191-member General
Assembly, the United States on Friday abandoned its aggressively
pursued attempt to obtain a United Nations treaty banning all
human cloning, including that done in the name of medical
research.
The outcome - an agreement to come up with a nonbinding
declaration against cloning to reproduce humans - fell far short
of the American goal and represented a setback for President
Bush. He called for a worldwide ban on all cloning when he
addressed the United Nations General Assembly in August, and he
made limiting stem cell and other related research an issue in
his presidential campaign.
All 191
United Nations members have agreed on the need for a treaty to
prohibit reproductive cloning.
But a vote has been stalled for three years by sharp differences
over whether to broaden the ban, as the United States wishes, to
prohibit cloning
to create stem cells for research, part of a field known as
therapeutic cloning.
The push for a total ban has set the Bush administration against
close allies like Britain and much of the world's scientific
establishment, who contend that it would block research on cancer,
Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, spinal cord
injuries, multiple sclerosis and other conditions. The White House argues that enough stem
cells from human embryos exist for research and that cloning an
embryo for any reason is unethical.
Negotiations have been going on for more than a year in the
General Assembly's legal committee, which draws up treaties. A
vote was scheduled for Friday on two competing versions, but with
scant hope of the kind of consensus emerging considered necessary
for an effective treaty.
The United States backed a resolution proposed by Costa Rica to
outlaw all forms of human cloning, while opponents of such an
absolute prohibition supported a Belgian measure banning
reproductive cloning outright and offering nations three options
for therapeutic cloning: outlawing it, putting a moratorium on
the practice, or regulating it through national legislation to
prevent misuse.
Instead of proceeding to a showdown vote on Friday night, the
committee agreed instead to take up a nonbinding declaration
proposed by Italy with ambiguous language that avoided raising
objections and to schedule meetings in February to shape the
final wording. The Italians' proposal prohibits "any
attempts to create human life through cloning processes and any
research intended to achieve that aim."
Regardless of what language emerges, the result will be a
declaration, not a treaty, which would have been the outcome had
either the Costa Rican or Belgian versions been adopted. Because
of that, nations will be under considerably less pressure to
change their existing views on cloning.
"A declaration is important for what it's not," said
Bernard Siegel, the executive director of the Genetics Policy
Institute, who had lobbied against the American-led campaign.
"It is not a treaty, it is nonbinding, and it will have no
chilling effect on therapeutic cloning, and stem cell research
will advance. We consider this a triumph."