Scientists from the Chinese National Human Genome Center have published a guideline on the cloning of human stem cells, saying that they firmly oppose human cloning.

They formulated six principles in the guideline to prevent the cloning of human beings, citing that the project goes against scientific ethics.

The guideline has been approved by the Shanghai municipal government and will be used to regulate the research on life sciences in Shanghai.

Meanwhile, related departments from the central government have issued an ethics guideline on human cloning based on the Shanghai standard, the first of its kind in China.

(CRI August 18, 2004)