Although the Malaysian government is against human cloning, it will encourage research on the subject, said Health Minister Chua Jui Meng.

"Our stand is clear, we are against human cloning by non-sexual methods," he told a press conference after opening the 1st National Conference on Life Sciences in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

However, Chua added that Malaysia will not discourage the research on therapeutic cloning — the use of cloning procedure to produce an embryo that would not be brought to term but to be used in generating stem cells for the creation of tissues and organs.

While there are no laws governing the area of human cloning, Malaysia nevertheless supports the United Nations' resolution in support of forming an ad-hoc committee on the drafting of an 'International Convention Against Reproductive Cloning of Human Beings', as well as several international declarations that prohibit the reproductive cloning of human beings.

National committee