US embassy cable - 05VIENNA2007

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UNESCO BIOETHICS DECLARATION - AUSTRIAN RESPONSE

Identifier: 05VIENNA2007
Wikileaks: View 05VIENNA2007 at Wikileaks.org
Origin: Embassy Vienna
Created: 2005-06-15 14:50:00
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Tags: TBIO AU UNESCO KSCI
Redacted: This cable was not redacted by Wikileaks.
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS VIENNA 002007 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
FOR IO/T (WROBERTS) AND EUR/AGS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO, AU, UNESCO, KSCI 
SUBJECT: UNESCO BIOETHICS DECLARATION - AUSTRIAN RESPONSE 
 
REF: STATE 109242 
 
This message is sensitive but unclassified. 
 
1.  (SBU) EconPolOff conveyed reftel points to Christoph 
Mueller and Margarethe Koegeler from the Federal 
Chancellery's Office of Political Coordination (OPC) on June 
13.  Koegeler is also Deputy Head of the GoA's Bioethics 
Commission.  The OPC has worked closely with the MFA to 
establish the GoA's position on the Declaration. 
 
2.  (SBU) The GOA agrees with the USG position that the 
Declaration's purview should be narrow, should focus 
primarily on human beings, and be of a non-binding character. 
 Mueller and Koegler explained that Austria has historically 
acted cautiously on bioethics issues.  For example, Austria 
is not a signatory to the Council of Europe's binding 
Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine.  The GOA believes 
that the Declaration should serve primarily as a guide for 
governments to draw up national legislation. 
 
3. (SBU)  Koegeler said he was somewhat surprised that UNESCO 
was going forward with the Declaration given the wide 
divergence of views that emerged at the first negotiating 
session.  According to Koegler, the GoA believes that UNESCO 
should not forward the Declaration to the October General 
Conference unless participating countries can achieve wide 
consensus. 
Brown 

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