G8 TAKE TOUGH STAND ON REPRODUCTIVE CLONING

June 23, 1997

DENVER (DTNS) -- In the final communique released at the end of the Summit of the Eight, held in Denver, Colorado, world leaders agreed to prevent the cloning of human beings.

Wire services and media correspondents reported human cloning -- cloning for reproductive purposes -- to have been included in the approximately dozen topics covered by the G8, comprised of the G7 heads of the world's seven leading industrialized nations and Russia.

"We agree on the need for appropriate domestic measures and close international cooperation to prohibit the use of somatic cell nuclear transfer to create a child," was the statement included amongst other issues such as terrorism, reform of the UN, the environment, and Hong Kong.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer refers to the process of taking a cell from a body, isolating the genetic material from the nucleus of the cell, and placing it in an embryo which will develop into a new organism, the procedure conventionally known as cloning.

It was not immediately clear which country had taken the initiative for the inclusion of reproductive cloning in the summit communique.