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19 EUROPEAN NATIONS SIGN BAN ON HUMAN CLONING
Britain, Germany not among signatories
January 12, 1998 Web posted at: 8:00 p.m. EST (0100 GMT)
PARIS (CNN) -- Nineteen European nations on Monday signed an agreement to prohibit the cloning of humans.
Representatives from 19 members of the Council of Europe signed a protocol that would commit their countries to ban by law "any intervention seeking to create human beings genetically identical to another human being, whether living or dead." It rules out any exception to the ban, even in the case of a completely sterile couple.
"At a time when occasional voices are being raised to assert the acceptability of human cloning and even to put it more rapidly into practice, it is important for Europe solemnly to declare its determination to defend human dignity against the abuse of scientific techniques," Council Secretary-General Daniel Tarchys said.
The text, which is to become a part of the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, would permit cloning of cells for research purposes.CNN's Margaret Lowrie reports icon 2 min. 3 sec VXtreme video
The accord will become binding on the signatories as soon as it has been ratified in five states.
Countries signing are: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Moldova, Norway, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Macedonia and Turkey.
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