The Chinese Government has officially banned research on human cloning for procreation purposes, but allowed remedial cloning.

The Ministry of Science of Technology and Ministry of Health recently issued the Guidelines for Research on Human Embryonic Stem Cells, the first time China has put out written policy on human cloning.

While forbidding research on human cloning for reproduction purposes, it allows cloning on embryonic stem cells and remedial cloning.

Research on the embryonic stem cells of human beings is regarded as having bright prospects for curing diseases.

However, as human embryonic stem cells come from human embryos, which are likely to develop into human individuals, research on them has aroused fierce debate on morality.

Some fear that doctors may intentionally collect embryo cells to cure other patients or for research into human cloning. Such action may arouse a fear of science among the public.

Sources say that the United Nations will issue a protocol to ban human cloning in November 2004. However, differences rose at a U.N. conference early October 2003.

The United States, Costa Rica and the Vatican supported a ban on all cloning research while China, Britain, France and Japan held that cloning research for reproduction and remedy should be treated differently.

(Agencies via Xinhua January 16, 2004)