An independent committee that reviewed the laws on cloning and human embryonic stem cell (ES cell) research in Australia has recommended that they should be relaxed. Australia currently has two pieces of federal legislation that strictly govern cloning and ES cell research.
The Research Involving Human Embryos Act and the Prohibition of Human Cloning Act, both passed in 2002, together ban reproductive cloning, prevent scientists from cloning embryos to obtain stem cells and restrict them to research on surplus IVF embryos created before the acts were passed, and donated by IVF patients who no longer require them. All research must operate under a licensing scheme administered by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
Now, the six-member Legislative Review Committee, chaired by John Lockhart, a former Federal Court judge, has looked at the law and considered the results of a public consultation that ended in September 2005. It received 1035 written submissions and heard 109 personal representations from people across the whole of Australia. It delivered its findings to the Federal Parliament on 19 December 2005.
Mr Lockhart said that there was 'clearly overwhelming support from the general public and the medical and scientific communities for maintaining a strong regulatory framework' in the area. But, he added that there was also clear support for 'augmentation of the current system to allow research, within a rigorous ethical framework, into emerging scientific practices that will assist in the understanding of disease and disability'.
On this basis, the Committee recommended that while human reproductive cloning should be banned, SCNT (somatic cell nuclear transfer) - cloning technology - should be allowed to be used to produce embryos for stem cell research. It said that despite ethical objections to the creation of embryos solely for research purposes, the range of diseases that stem cells could potentially be used to treat - or even cure - as well as the burden of those diseases, indicates that the technique should be allowed for research and medical training purposes. The proposals would extend the legal definition of what constitutes an embryo, to include 'entities' created specifically for research, rather than defining embryos solely as those created by the fertilisation of an egg by a sperm. The Committee also recommended that a national stem cell bank should be established in Australia, to enable scientists to share knowledge - and that consideration should be given to housing this at the Australian Stem Cell Centre at Monash University in Melbourne.
The Government, headed by Prime Minister John Howard, is known to be divided on the issue, but was said to be considering the recommendations over the Christmas legislative break. Parliamentary debates are likely to take place later this year.
Sources and References
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Cloning ban 'may be lifted'
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Lockhart review supports strong regulation of research involving human embryos
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Reports on the Prohibition of Human Cloning Act 2002 and the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002
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Review redefines embryo
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