Germany To Import Human Embryo Cells

Germany has issued its first permit to import human embryo cells for research under a law approved earlier this year, a spokesman for a government lab said Monday.

Lawmakers in April approved stem cell imports, backing a compromise aimed at balancing scientific promise with moral concerns tinged by the Nazi past.

Oliver Bruestle, a neurobiologist at the University of Bonn, said he plans to use the stem cells, being imported from Israel, for research into Parkinson's and other currently incurable diseases.

"I am very happy and relieved that everything came together this year," said Bruestle, who hopes to start his research next month. "We have waited more than two years."

Bruestle received permission Friday to import the stem cells, said Guenther Dettweiler, spokesman for the Robert Koch Institut in Berlin, the government lab responsible for processing the application.

Three other requests still are being considered, he said.

The cells will be shipped from the lab of Haifa, Israel-based gynecologist Joseph Itskovitz in the next few days.

Under the new German law, passed after several years of debate, imports of stem cells produced before Jan. 1, 2002, are allowed for projects of "overwhelming significance" where no other research method can be used.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder supported controlled imports, saying Germany needed to participate in international research.

Church leaders advocated a ban, however, and President Johannes Rau warned the country to move carefully, given the Nazi history of experimenting on humans.