Posted on 10/16/2003 8:31:45 AM PDT by Forgiven_Sinner
French president says international convention needed to address bioethics |
France's President Jacques Chirac has called for an international convention on bioethics to prevent breakthroughs in scientific research from being abused.
In a strongly worded warning to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO's) general conference yesterday, Chirac said that bioethical principles that carried the force of international law were needed to address new issues raised by advances in genetic engineering and biotechnology.
“New threats and new abuses,” he told UNESCO, “made it necessary to set out principles of bioethics in international public law.”
He listed the main threats as “discrimination based on genetic heritage, selling of gametes over the Internet, 'surrogate mother' services, traffic in human organs, clinics specializing in euthanasia, and medical experiments under conditions that are contrary to human dignity.”
Denouncing an “absence of morality, greed, [bordering on] madness,” Chirac said that urgent action was needed to protect human dignity in the future.
The French president condemned existing laws for being riddled with loopholes, saying that they allowed those who wanted to get around current regulations—for example, those prohibiting techniques such as cloning—“to find a way easily.”
He said that a universal declaration outlining basic bioethical principles should be made within the framework of the United Nations (UN) as a first step toward establishing an international bioethics convention.
Insisting that scientific progress and the protection of human rights were compatible, Chirac argued that “clear ethical standards that are universally recognized to serve humankind and civilization” would allow science to continue with greater assurance.
He urged the members of the UN, who have failed to reach an agreement on a ban on human reproductive cloning, to reach a consensus as quickly as possible.
France is already a leading opponent of human cloning, but Chirac said that a concerted, international approach was needed.
However, UNESCO's Director-General Koichiro Matsuura has already warned that it will be difficult to persuade different countries to agree on a common set of principles for an international convention on bioethics.
In an interview with La Croix, Matsuura argued that the majority of UNESCO member states considered it “too early to have a discussion about a convention.” He noted that UNESCO had to abandon a plan to formulate common principles about stem cell research because members could not agree.
Scientists in France have welcomed Chirac's initiative.
“Everyone thinks it was very courageous of President Chirac to speak out forcefully on these questions and so oppose many vested financial interests,“ Christiane Bouchard from the Ethics Committee of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, a French research institute, told The Scientist. “Even though there are many barriers to be overcome, we believe that it is realistic to propose an international convention on bioethics. In view of the enormous dangers, laws are needed.”
Links for this article “Jacques Chirac souligne l'urgence d'un code universel de bioéthique,” Le Monde, October 14, 2003.
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/recherche_articleweb/1,13-0,36-337950 ,0.html
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
http://www.unesco.org/
Koichiro Matsuura
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php@URL_ID=6038&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC& URL_SECTION=201.html
La Croix http://www.la-croix.com/index.jsp
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique http://www.cnrs.fr/
LOL!
Oh, goody. France again can set the rules, which means the French are the only ones that can break it with impunity.
The smoke would come out red.
Leni
HE SHOULD KNOW.....about "loopholes"....BAAAWAAAAA!!!
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