Europe Signs Human Cloning Ban

By JOSEPH SCHUMAN
Associated Press Writer

PARIS (AP) -- Hours after French President Jacques Chirac called for an international ban on human cloning, 19 European nations signed an agreement today to prohibit the genetic replication of humans beings.

The actions came two days after President Clinton blasted a Chicago physicist's intention to clone humans as ``untested and unsafe and morally unacceptable'' and urged Congress to outlaw human cloning.

``It is on the international level that one must ban cloning and the genetic manipulation susceptible to altering the character of the human species,'' Chirac told the European national ethics committee.

The 1997 presentation of Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal, set off an international outcry over the implications for human biology.

Many world leaders renewed their condemnation after Chicago scientist Richard Seed said Jan. 7 that he planned to begin working on human cloning using a new technique.

``We would resolve nothing in banning certain practices in one country if the doctors and researchers can develop them elsewhere,'' said Chirac, citing the ``worrying trend'' in the United States.

Representatives from 19 members of the Council of Europe later today signed a protocol that would commit their countries to prohibiting by law ``any intervention seeking to create human beings genetically identical to another human being, whether living or dead.''

The 40-member group was founded in 1949 to promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

The cloning protocol will not include two of Europe's biggest countries.

Germany claims the measure is weaker than a current German law that forbids all research on human embryos -- a legacy of Nazis attempts to conduct genetic engineering of humans.

Britain, with a strong tradition of defending the freedoms of scientific research, also balked.

Countries signing today are: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Moldova, Norway, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Macedonia and Turkey.