News
-Press releases covering the events in Mexico City, 1-5 December 2003, in English and Spanish: Link to conference website
-Results of elections for IAP executive committee 2004-2006
Co-chairs: Yves Quere (France) and Chen Zhu (China)
Committee members: Academies of Science of Bangladesh, India, Cuba, Brazil, Nigeria, Senegal, Sweden, Netherlands, Italy, USA, Japan.
-IAP resolution reiterating support for therapeutic cloning ...
Members of the InterAcademy Panel, gathered for their General Assembly at the Mexican Academy of Sciences, are deeply concerned by an apparent proposal to move a vote at the U.N. General Assembly on Monday 8 December to ban all forms of human cloning. The IAP is the global consortium of the world's national academies of science. Sixty-six national academies, from all parts of the world and all cultural traditions, under the leadership of the IAP, called in September 2003 for a global ban on human reproductive cloning as a matter of urgency. Crucially, however, the 66 academies also called for policies on the acceptability of cloning for research and therapeutic purposes to be excluded from the global ban and to be determined at the national level. In doing this, the Academies recognized both the diversity of views on this difficult issue and the great medical potential of research on stem cells and cloning. This position was partially upheld by the U.N. Legal Committee on 6 November 2003, when a proposal to ban all forms of human cloning was put into abeyance for two years. We call upon the U.N. to stand by the decision of 6 November, to heed IAP's clear expression of global scientific consensus, and not to jeopardize the potential and far-reaching medical benefits that may arise from cloning for research and therapeutic purposes.. See link to statements.