John Perry
Ceist:82 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on the position adopted by the Government on a Costa Rican UN Resolution to ban human cloning. [26807/03]
Written Answers. - UN Resolutions.
As the Taoiseach has stated, this Government is opposed to all forms of human cloning. At the current session of the sixth committee of the United Nations General Assembly, which considers questions of international law, Costa Rica presented a draft resolution which, had it been adopted, would have established an ad hoc committee with a mandate to begin negotiations on an international convention to prohibit all forms of human cloning.
Ireland supported the Costa Rican resolution and was one of its co-sponsors. However, before action could be taken by the sixth committee on the Costa Rican resolution, a motion to defer consideration of the issue for two years was proposed by Iran, on behalf of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. Ireland voted against this motion. However, the motion was passed, by a narrow margin.
Question No. 83 answered with Question No. 8.