Australian Parliament's Debate on Cloning of Human Embryonic Cells Makes Science. (November 24, 2006)

    The following is the summary in the Journal Science (November 24, 2006) of the debate taking place by Australia's parliamentarians as to reducing the restrictions placed on research using human embryonic cells.

Cloning Ban Imperilled

Australia's 2002 ban on the cloning of human embryonic cells may soon be lifted if a bill to repeal it gets a majority in the House after clearing the Senate this month. Mal Washer [MHR, MBBS (UWA). General practitioner], the Liberal Party member behind the House bill, predicts a large margin of victory. But Family First Party leader Steve Fielding, who supports the ban, says it's too early to tell, noting that repeal passed the Senate by one vote. If approved, the new bill would forbid the making of sperm-fertilized embryos for research and the implantation of a cloned embryo into a woman's uterus. It would also bar the transfer of a human nucleus into an animal egg. The bill would allow human somatic cell nuclear transfer and narrow the definition of embryo to cover only entities surviving the first mitotic division.