CANBERRA, Australia – Lawmakers rejected the moral views of their political leaders Wednesday and lifted a four-year ban on cloning human embryos for stem cell research – legislation that could put Australia at the forefront of research into diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s.
Prime Minister John Howard, his two deputies and the leader of the major opposition party all argued the sanctity of human life must take precedence over potential cures for conditions that also include Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries and arthritis.
But lawmakers in the House of Representatives took advantage of a rare nonparty-line vote Wednesday to side with medical researchers, voting 82 to 62 to scrap the ban. The bill was passed by the Senate last month by a razor-edge 34 to 32.
The new law allows therapeutic cloning, the splicing of DNA from skin cells into eggs to produce stem cells, also known as master cells, which are capable of forming all the tissues of the human body. The cloned embryos cannot be implanted in a womb and must be destroyed within 14 days.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
