Post by Asairia on Mar 15, 2019 17:46:26 GMT
WORLD ASSEMBLY GENERAL ASSEMBLY
THE CLONING CONVENTIONS
DELEGATE IS VOTING: AGAINST ☒
FINAL RESULTS:
6,001 FOR
9,815 AGAINST
Overview
The Cloning Conventions seek to, "Prevent potential detriment and harm to future clones ... ensure they have the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ... and clarify the ethical boundaries on cloning."
About the Proposal
The author, Caspian Settlement of The Pacific, has submitted the following legislation for our consideration:
Disturbed by the lack of legislation concerning biological clones;
Aware that many nations with biological engineering have the ability to clone organisms and the increasing importance and potential biological cloning has to the future of biology, ecology, and society;
Seeking to prevent potential detriment and harm to future clones so that they are not mistreated nor misused, and in the case of sapient clones, ensure they have the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;
Striving to clarify the ethical boundaries on cloning to prevent unethical experimentation and account for all possible mishaps that could occur within the cloning process, especially for sapient beings;
Resolute in the belief that comprehensive conventions must be created in regards to biological cloning to establish a reasonable set of moral principles on behavior towards both clones and cloning;
The World Assembly hereby:
1. Defines a clone for any organism as either a genetically identical, or not significantly genetically altered, artificially produced copy of a single individual, the originator;
2. Excludes, for the purposes of this resolution, any artificially produced but genetically identical or genetically altered copy of any originator that can asexually reproduce for the intentions of having offspring, the naturally reproduced descendant of an originator, due to an inability to realistically naturally reproduce asexually or sexually, and/or a genetically identical or genetically altered copy of any plant originator created via traditional techniques (such as cuttings) derived from agriculture and/or horticulture, from being defined as a clone, and defines them as offspring instead;
3. Grants all clones the same rights as their originator’s species, regardless of any disabilities resulting from a failed cloning;
4. Restricts all cloning to only be done by qualified biomedical personnel, or qualified veterinary personnel in collaboration with qualified biomedical personnel, and qualified laboratory technicians who are appointed and under the responsibility of qualified biomedical/veterinary personnel;
A. Restricts the cloning of sapient organisms only to originators who fully consent to being cloned;
5. Permits the cloning of unconscious, unfeeling organisms from sapient originators, where the clones themselves do not and will not possess any sapience and have been proven to not be in locked-in syndrome, for biomedical experimentation and use;
6. Bans the intentional cloning of conscious, feeling organisms from sapient originators for biomedical experimentation and use, and of any cloning of any sapient originator if the medical professionals who clone cannot reliably confirm, with a high degree of confidence, that the clone is not suffering from locked-in syndrome or any related disability;
7. Reserves for all sapient clones the right to know the origin of their genetic material at their national legal age of consent unless the clonal parent requests otherwise;
8. Authorizes and actively encourages nations to share cloning technology, provided that sharing does not violate extant resolutions;
9. Reserves for all WA member-states the right to legislate on the legal methods of cloning as laid out by this resolution and on anything regarding organ cloning;
10. Assigns the World Assembly Scientific Programme the duties of overlooking cloning for biomedical research and use to ensure their accordance with this resolution and the promotion of the sharing of cloning technology.
Aware that many nations with biological engineering have the ability to clone organisms and the increasing importance and potential biological cloning has to the future of biology, ecology, and society;
Seeking to prevent potential detriment and harm to future clones so that they are not mistreated nor misused, and in the case of sapient clones, ensure they have the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;
Striving to clarify the ethical boundaries on cloning to prevent unethical experimentation and account for all possible mishaps that could occur within the cloning process, especially for sapient beings;
Resolute in the belief that comprehensive conventions must be created in regards to biological cloning to establish a reasonable set of moral principles on behavior towards both clones and cloning;
The World Assembly hereby:
1. Defines a clone for any organism as either a genetically identical, or not significantly genetically altered, artificially produced copy of a single individual, the originator;
2. Excludes, for the purposes of this resolution, any artificially produced but genetically identical or genetically altered copy of any originator that can asexually reproduce for the intentions of having offspring, the naturally reproduced descendant of an originator, due to an inability to realistically naturally reproduce asexually or sexually, and/or a genetically identical or genetically altered copy of any plant originator created via traditional techniques (such as cuttings) derived from agriculture and/or horticulture, from being defined as a clone, and defines them as offspring instead;
3. Grants all clones the same rights as their originator’s species, regardless of any disabilities resulting from a failed cloning;
4. Restricts all cloning to only be done by qualified biomedical personnel, or qualified veterinary personnel in collaboration with qualified biomedical personnel, and qualified laboratory technicians who are appointed and under the responsibility of qualified biomedical/veterinary personnel;
A. Restricts the cloning of sapient organisms only to originators who fully consent to being cloned;
5. Permits the cloning of unconscious, unfeeling organisms from sapient originators, where the clones themselves do not and will not possess any sapience and have been proven to not be in locked-in syndrome, for biomedical experimentation and use;
6. Bans the intentional cloning of conscious, feeling organisms from sapient originators for biomedical experimentation and use, and of any cloning of any sapient originator if the medical professionals who clone cannot reliably confirm, with a high degree of confidence, that the clone is not suffering from locked-in syndrome or any related disability;
7. Reserves for all sapient clones the right to know the origin of their genetic material at their national legal age of consent unless the clonal parent requests otherwise;
8. Authorizes and actively encourages nations to share cloning technology, provided that sharing does not violate extant resolutions;
9. Reserves for all WA member-states the right to legislate on the legal methods of cloning as laid out by this resolution and on anything regarding organ cloning;
10. Assigns the World Assembly Scientific Programme the duties of overlooking cloning for biomedical research and use to ensure their accordance with this resolution and the promotion of the sharing of cloning technology.
My Decision
Overall, I like what the author is trying to accomplish with this proposal. While cloning is an ability few nations, if any, have truly been able to master, sooner or later we'll have to address it like we would any other human rights issue. In a lot of ways, this debate on cloning mirrors that of the debate on artificial intelligence being granted sapient recognition and rights equal to that of humans.
I'm serious; it's not that hard to believe considering GAR#355 defines a sapient being as, "Any physical entity possessing the ability to:
1. Think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic;
2. Choose a sensible course of action or considered response;
3. Experience subjectively, feel, or recognize, discern, envision, understand, or attain awareness of."
That, however, is a topic for another discussion.
Despite my general approval for the efforts undertaken by this resolution, the basis of my opposition lies with the highlighted portion of the fifth clause that, "Permits the cloning of unconscious, unfeeling organisms from sapient originators, where the clones themselves do not and will not possess any sapience and have been proven to not be in locked-in syndrome, for biomedical experimentation and use."
One of the primary intended goals of cloning involves the duplication of human embryos to harvest stem cells for biomedical research and use. What are human embryos? They are a clump of unconscious, unfeeling developing cells, yes, but what happens if their progress is not terminated? They eventually become human beings who are fully conscious, feeling, and sapient. Clause 5 allows cloning so long as the clones created will not develop sapience in the future, and since human embryos develop into sapient beings, there is legal ground to challenge this resolution, denying us a more effective and arguably more humane method of studying stem cells and developing life-saving treatments with them. While there are other ways of obtaining stem cells, embryo use is among the most effective and humane.
While this legal challenge remains to be validated or rejected in the court of law, I'd rather not gamble the fate of a potentially life-saving treatment over a poorly written clause. So long as it remains in this resolution or continues to read as it current does, I fear that this resolution may do equally as much harm as it will do good.
As such, I have cast my vote against this resolution, and I encourage you to do the same.
Current Delegate support at time of publication.
