UNESCO BIOETHICS DECLARATION - AUSTRIAN RESPONSE

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