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Richard Seed's declared intention to set up a cloning laboratory in Tijuana, Mexico, if the US Congress bans human cloning was quickly rebutted by the Mexican government, which last Friday expressed its “broadest repudiation” of Seed's proposal.

But, like Seed's challenge to the US Congress, his offshore plans point out another reality: the international community has no solid legal front to present against the planned work of Seed or those who may follow him. Not only could Seed now proceed in Mexico — where the president of the national bioethics commission last week could only implore the Mexican Congress to legislate on the matter — but no binding international ban on cloning is now in place.

The 186 member states of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization unanimously passed a declaration in November calling for a cloning ban (see Nature 390, 110, & 388, 508; 508; 1997). But that declaration is not legally binding.

Noëlle Lenoir, the chairwoman of Unesco's International Bioethics Committee, says the committee cannot take a position on the need for a legally-binding international agreement, as it has frozen its activities pending a review of its functions to fulfil the new mandate given to it by Unesco of following up the implementation of the provisions of the declaration. The new committee, which should be in place next month, will probably consider whether a legal instrument is desirable.

Turning the call for a ban on cloning for reproductive purposes contained in the declaration into a legally-binding agreement may in practice change little, argues Lenoir. What is important is that countries translate international agreements into their national laws and enforce them. “Pressure for international agreements counts for little unless there is national government will to implement them.”