인간복제를 규제하는 국제규범-「생명윤리 및 안전에 관한 법률」의 문제점과 개정방향 모색 -

Human cloning is a very difficult problem staying on a coordinate which includes human lives and the need for regulation against cloning activity to avoid any disaster caused by the birth of cloned offspring. The human fetus is originated from the early stage of a life, a human embryo. Thus the national obligation to protect lives should be logically expanded to the protection of human embryos as well as the effort to eliminate any risk intimidating sound existence of them. The possible methods to regulate cloning activities divide by ① the total ban on any kind of embryo production or cloning ② the partial permission of embryo production or closing for the purpose of biomedical technology research which still prohibits implanting a cloned embryo into a woman’s uterus or other cultivation environment like pregnancy. As a result the method of ② means the utilization of cloned embryo for the purse of treatment, which accompanies the controversies against balance and conflict for interests between a life and a life.「United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning」 demands UN member countries to adopt all necessary methods for proper protection of human lives, to prohibit human cloning (including embryo cloning) which is not matched with the dignity of man as well as life protection, to ban genetic engineering against human dignity, and to adopt any method protecting the utilization of women as domestic law. Under Article 1 of the 「Additional Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine, on the Prohibition of Cloning Human Beings」, “Any intervention seeking to create a human being genetically identical to another human being, whether living or dead, is prohibited.” Most of countries currently prohibit human cloning including treatment purpose as a domestic law. Jumping on the vague hope of general public which was created by the fabrication of experimental results done by Dr. Hwang Woo-Suk and the exaggeration of treatment effects using by somatic cell cloning embryo, it is a big problem to legislate 「the Life Ethics and Safety Act」 which restrictively allows embryo cloning. Especially the embryo exchange done by a researcher in Hwang Woo-Suk case practically shows the possibility that embryo cloning for treatment purchase could be abused as reproductive human cloning. According to the international rule or the legislative examples of other countries, 「the Life Ethics and Safety Act」 should be reformed as strictly banning human cloning. To prohibit reproductive human cloning, all kinds of human embryo cloning would be completely banned. It would not be late to review the amendment of this law later when the need of embryo cloning for treatment purpose is clearly proved. As another alternative, embryo cloning for treatment research purpose would be limitedly allowed however the enforcement of the legislation would be deferred until it is proved that ① embryonic stem cells are overwhelmingly superior to non-embryonic stem cells for the treatment of intractable disease ② embryonic stem cells have more outstanding biomedical value than the embryonic stem cells formed from IVF.