ARCHBISHOP MARTINO: HUMAN CLONING IS UNACCEPTABLE

VATICAN CITY, FEB 27, 2002 (VIS) - On February 26, Archbishop Renato Martino, Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations addressed the Committee on an International Convention against the Reproductive Cloning of Human Beings, which was meeting in New York.

The archbishop emphasized that the Holy See "supports a world-wide and comprehensive ban on human cloning, no matter what techniques are used and what aims are pursued." This position, he explained, is based on "biological analysis of the cloning process and anthropological, social, ethical and legal reflection on the negative implications that human cloning has on the life, the dignity, and the rights of the human being."

Furthermore, the Holy See considers the distinction between reproductive and therapeutic (or experimental) cloning as "unacceptable." Nonetheless, Archbishop Martino recalled that the ban on cloning does not prohibit the use of certain techniques: "to obtain a number of biological entities (molecules, cells and tissues) other than human embryos; to generate plants, or to produce non-human embryos and non-chimaeric (human-animal) embryos." He went on to say that "the Holy See supports research on stem-cells of post-natal origin since this approach is a sound, promising and ethical way to achieve tissue transplantation and cell therapy."

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