Australian Capital Territory to debate cloning legislation

Legislation on human embryonic stem cell (ES cell) research and cloning is currently being debated by the Legislative Assembly of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The proposal will remove the current ban on 'therapeutic cloning' and at the same time prohibit reproductive cloning, to bring the state in line with federal law and other state legislatures.

The Federal Parliament decided in 2006 to legislate to permit scientists to use cloned human embryos in stem cell research, following recommendations made by the Lockhart Committee, but most states still retained prohibitive legislation that denied scientists state facilities to perform the research. Since then, the states of Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland have passed legislation to permit therapeutic cloning.

ACT Health Minister Katy Gallagher, who proposed the bill, highlighted the safeguards contained in the legislation. 'The majority of this bill actually sets out the prohibitions on what can't occur you know, for example, there cannot be human cloning, there cannot be the use of embryos beyond the 14 day period it sets out. In fact more than half this bill is what cannot occur in this research,' she said.

Professor Faunce of the John Curtin School of Medical Research said the proposals will enable the state to compete with other states that have legislated in favour of the research. 'It's vitally important that we send a strong signal that our scientists working at the John Curtin School are supported and that what they're doing is legal', he said. 'We have great hopes that they'll be able to cure and alleviate a lot of otherwise untreatable disease.'

Opponents have expressed their concern over the destruction of the embryo, which is involved in human ES cell research. In debates, Brendan Smyth in opposition said, 'I will be consistent in that I voted against abortion, I have voted against euthanasia, I have voted against capital punishment and I will vote against this'. The Church also voiced its opposition to the Bill. Archbishop Mark Coleridge said it was wrong to create life with the intention of destroying it. 'Therapeutic cloning of any kind that simply creates a human embryo in order to experiment upon it, is in some sense an ethical failure', he said.

The Assembly has already passed the Bill in principle and will begin debating the details this week.