UN divided on cloning declaration, may adopt therapeutic ban News
UN divided on cloning declaration, may adopt therapeutic ban

[JURIST] The UN General Assembly's legal committee [official website] failed to reach a consensus Thursday on a nonbinding declaration that would have urged urge governments to adopt their own laws on human cloning. As a result, the committee is likely to adopt a proposal supported by the United States but opposed by proponents of stem-cell research that would ban therapeutic cloning [American Federation for Aging overview], which involves the harvesting of human embryos. The proposal is a follow-up to a failed 2001 initiative that did not include such a ban. The US, Costa Rica, and other countries have argued this type of research is a taking of human life and urge the UN to oppose any proposal that does not include a ban. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.