ABSTRACT
Since the announcement of the birth of Dolly, the cloned sheep, in late February 1997, debate and controversy over cloning have been ongoing in countries around the world and on the international scene. From the moment of the announcement, it was clear that the same technique that was used to create Dolly could, in principle, be used for cloning humans. Thus, the immediate reaction was a series of statements and policy initiatives aimed at the prohibition of human cloning. Such an initial ‘veto’ against the cloning of human beings was characteristic of both international institutions like UNESCO (1997) and the Council of Europe (1998) and national bodies such as the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC, 1997) established by President Clinton, or the UK Government, stating that ‘We regard the deliberate cloning of human individuals as ethically unacceptable’ (House of Commons Official Report, 1997).
