Topic 1: The Topic of Cloning and Genetic Engineering
Country: Mozambique
Committee: World Health Organization

School: Skyview High School
Name: Dan Lowry

In this new age of biotech advancement we have to ask ourselves what is right for our world with regard to cloning and genetic engineering. As Mozambique sees it we have two extremes and hopefully the correct answer lies somewhere between them. At one end we can allow anyone and everyone to freely research without regard to ethics or human sanctity of life. Or we can shut down the field completely. But we must look at both the bad and the good. The good is that through genetic research we may one day conquer inherited diseases. The bad is that organizations that see profit in cloning and research may act without regard to life’s dignity and may treat it as a mere commodity; bought and sold.

Mozambique wishes to look to genetic research as an incomparable boon for mankind. We would like to see it continue in a form that respects human life and is done in a way that will share its results with all mankind. We however, do not approve of the cloning of humans. Those cloning would be doing so without the consent of the cloned and this would be entirely against the wishes of any civilized person. At this point in time cloning is also very unreliable, rarely producing the desired results and it is most often fatal for the cloned creature. Also as Mozambique represents a wide variety of religions; Christian, Muslim, as well as tribal beliefs, we cannot in good faith with our people support something that contradicts faith in creation.

Mozambique’s answer to this problem is this: allow genetic research and gene engineering to a limited extent, but create an international oversight committee that would regulate those attempting research. Also genetics and its valuable results is beneficial to all of mankind only if it is shared with all of mankind, so we ask that all discoveries are made public and available for those in need. With regards to human cloning however, we stand by what Birhanemeskel Abebe of Ethiopia said, "… human cloning should be banned, because it upsets the social order by confounding the meaning of parenthood and confusing the identity and kinship relations of any cloned child."