Cloning allowed in Australia · 2006-12-07 16:52
Australia’s parliament has lifted a ban on cloning human embryos for stem cell research, reports BBC.
The new legislation will allow therapeutic cloning – producing an embryo to take stem cells (capable of forming human tissues).
Scientists hope stem cell research will lead to treatments Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.
Australia’s first laws on stem cell research were passed in 2002, then it allowed to extract stem cells from embryos left over from IVF programmes, but cell cloning was banned.
Under the new law, the cloned embryos cannot be implanted in a womb and must be destroyed within 14 days.
Many officials, including the prime minister and some party, opposed the bill. Prime Minister John Howard said: “I think what we’re talking about here is a moral absolute and that is why I cannot support the legislation.”
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