14 DAY TRIAL // Australia's parliament has lifted a four-year ban on cloning human embryos for stem cell research, despite opposition from the prime minister and other party leaders.
The new legislation could put Australia at the forefront into therapeutic cloning for research of diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, spinal cord injuries and arthritis. Members of the parliament were permitted a conscience vote - meaning they were not bound by their party's policy - following heated debate.
Despite strong support for the bill, both Prime Minister John Howard and new Labor leader Kevin Rudd made impassioned speeches against repealing the ban. "I think what we're talking about here is a moral absolute and that is why I cannot support the legislation," Mr Howard said. "I don't think the science has shifted enough to warrant the parliament changing its view, and for that reason I'm going to vote against the bill."
Australia's first laws on stem cell research were approved in 2002, permitting scientists to extract stem cells from embryos left over from IVF programs, but banning cell cloning. The new legislation will allow therapeutic cloning, the introduction of DNA from skin cells into ovules to produce an embryo from which stem cells (capable of forming human tissues) can be taken. The cloned embryos cannot be implanted in an uterus and must be destroyed within 14 days.
The law would be introduced in six months after health and science authorities make guidelines for egg donation and research licenses. "This work's being done in Sweden, England, the United States, in Japan... I didn't see how we could accept any treatment derived from this in the future if we didn't allow the research here in Australia," said former Health Minister Kay Patterson.
She believed the legislation could be made more liberal and that it must be reviewed after three years. Britain is the first country to have legalized the cloning of human embryos for stem cell research in 2001. The Bush administration has banned federal funding for research on stem cell lines developed after August 2001, but private research is still done.
The U.S. case with therapeutic cloning was repeatedly cited both for and against lifting the ban during a three-day parliamentary debate.