In accordance with the UN General Assembly resolution No. 56/93, the Ad Hoc Committee on International Convention against the Reproductive Cloning of Human Beings and its working group meeting were convened respectively in February and September 2002 in the UN Headquarters in New York.About eighty countries includingChinaattended the above-mentioned meetings.

The Chinese Delegation pointed out at the meetings that the Chinese Government actively supported the formulation of an International Convention against the Reproductive Cloning of Human Beings because the reproductive cloning of human beings is a tremendous threat to the dignity of mankind and may probably give rise to serious social, ethic, moral, religious and legal problems.The Chinese Government is resolutely opposed to cloning human beings and will not permit any experiment of cloning human beings, and for this purpose has formulated the Measures for the Management of the Technique for Human Auxiliary Reproduction.

Considering that the United States and some catholic countries such as Spain and Italy advocate that the convention to be formulated should completely prohibit reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning, China, France, Germany and other countries maintain that the scope of application should be limited to the prohibition of reproductive cloning of human beings on which general consensus has been reached by all countries at present, as authorized by the UN General Assembly in the resolution No. 56/93.The Chinese Delegation pointed out that the Chinese Government has also paid great attention to the ethic problem involved in the therapeutic cloning, standing for effective monitoring and strict examination of therapeutic cloning.At present, the Chinese experts and government officials concerned are formulating "the proposal for the management of the research and application of human embryo stem cells, in which provisions will be carried for a strict examination and monitoring procedure for the research of embryo stem cells and research institutions will be asked to carry on the work by following the recognized ethic norms.

The Chinese Delegation also indicated that the research on embryo stem cells will bring hope for curing a multitude of diseases and has great prospects in medical science.All countries should protect scientific research that may bring benefit to mankind.Different countries have different histories, cultures, religious beliefs and ethic traditions and have different views on the origin of life.They should seek common ground while preserving differences, respect each other's different national conditions and concepts of value and ethics.To impose uniformity is neither necessary nor possible.

The Chinese Delegation finally remarked that simultaneously with bringing well-being to mankind, the development of science and technology may also challenge the traditional ethics and moral principles of mankind.How to resolve this contradiction is a long-term topic for discussion that all human beings are faced with jointly.All countries should make concerted efforts to find out a solution.Although this convention has not incorporated the therapeutic cloning into the scope of application, it does not exclude ensuing discussions on this question by all countries in future.The urgent thing to do at present is to formulate at an early date a convention on prohibition of reproductive cloning of human beings on which general consensus has been reached by all countries, so as to avoid the outcome that human beings do not want to see.