NEW YORK, CMC:
JAMAICA AND Cuba yesterday broke ranks with several Caribbean countries in voting against adopting a United Nations (UN) declaration on human cloning.
A government statement said that the declaration calls on member states to adopt all measures necessary to prohibit all forms of human cloning in as much as they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life.
The statement said the UN General Assembly approved the measure by a vote of 84 to 34 with 37 abstentions. A number of Caribbean countries were among the 84 nations who voted for the measure.
BAHAMAS, BARBADOS ABSTAINED
They include Belize, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts-Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago, while the Bahamas and Barbados abstained.
Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica were absent when the vote was taken.
Under the declaration, member states are called on to protect adequately human life in the application of life sciences; to prohibit the application of genetic engineering techniques that may be contrary to human dignity; to prevent the exploitation of women in the application of life sciences; and to adopt and implement national legislation in that connection.
The declaration adopted was the product of a working group established by the Assembly to finalise the text of a United Nations declaration on human cloning, which met in New York last month.
AVERTED DIVISIVE VOTE
Last November, the Sixth Committee averted a divisive vote on the question of an international convention against human reproductive cloning by deciding to take up the issue as a declaration.
Regretting the failure to achieve consensus, several delegations said they had voted against the text because the reference to "human life" could be interpreted as a call for a total ban on all forms of human cloning.
The countries that voted in favour of the declaration welcomed its adoption, saying it constituted an important step in the protection of human dignity and the promotion of human rights, as well as a stepping stone in the process towards a complete ban on human cloning.
