European states ban human cloning

Representatives of nineteen European countries have met in Paris to sign the first binding international ban on human cloning.

But some countries, including Germany and Britain, did not take part because they are still studying a much larger convention, which will incorporate a cloning ban.

Before the ceremony, the French president, Jacques Chirac, said the world will resolve nothing by banning practices in one country if scientists can develop them elsewhere.

Concern is growing worldwide about the issue.

An American scientist (Richard Seed) says he hopes to be able to genetically duplicate a human being within eighteen months

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service