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Journalism of Courage
The UN adopted a cautious stance towards the announcement yesterday that the first cloned human baby had been born, insisting the claim could not be proven without hard scientific data.
Fred Eckhard, a spokesman for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, said: ‘‘We heard about this claim, but in the absence of scientific data, we can’t automatically accept it as a fact. No one should expect the Secretary General to send flowers.’’
US President George Bush is ‘‘deeply’’ troubled by efforts to clone human beings and wants Congress to ban the practice. ‘‘The President believes, like most Americans, that human cloning is deeply troubling and he strongly supports legislation banning it,’’ White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
Bush was joined by French President Jacques Chirac who also issued a statement denouncing efforts to clone human beings: “For France, this practice is criminal and contrary to human dignity.’’ He urged all nations to sign a convention presented to the UN by France and Germany that is aimed at the ‘‘universal prohibition of human reproductive cloning.’’
“These claims give science a bad name. There is nothing credible about them,” said Antinori, an Italian fertility expert who had previously announced that one of his patients would give birth to the first cloned baby in January.
The Vatican said the claim was “an expression of a brutal mentality, lacking all ethical and human consideration” and noted the group had provided no proof.
