Dr. Fukyama argues that the recent cloning of a human embryo by South Korean researchers demonstrates "both the speed with which science is moving ahead, and the urgent necessity to break the current logjam over cloning legislation that leaves the United States as one of the few developed countries without a legal framework in this area."

The recent production of the first human cloned embryo in Seoul highlighted the price the United States and other Western nations may pay for their unresolved debate over human embryonic stem cells: if they lose their technical lead, they also forfeit the chance to set the ethical rules of the game.

Scientists from around the world yesterday urged the United Nations to ban reproductive cloning of humans.

A smoldering global debate over human cloning is likely to flare following a report this week that researchers in South Korea have for the first time cloned human embryos and used them to produce a type of cell widely regraded as a potential key to treating a range of diseases.

The author argues that it is "better to control and regulate human cloning than to try to ban it."

Ronald Bailey evaluates some of the arguments for and against cloning and concedes that there is some need now to ban cloning but he argues that such laws should expire after five years.

American and Vatican differences with France and Germany have delayed work on drafting a U.N. treaty against human cloning for at least a year.

The author argues that an international ban on cloning will fail because "agreements that purport to ban certain types of weapons and technologies merely permit those who already have them to develop them anyway, while denying the rest of the world a plausible justification for working towards strategic balance."

Warning that bioengineered animals could escape into the wild and muddy the gene pool, a new scientific report calls for more oversight of the entire field, including assessments of whether biotech meat or dairy products might cause allergies if eaten.

An advocacy group said yesterday it had uncovered a year-old patent that it interprets as applying to cloned human beings, and the group called on Congress to clarify the law to specify that no patents can be issued on human life.