Aussie Lawmakers End Ban On Human Cloning

In 82-62 Vote, With Prime Minister John Howard In Opposition

(AP)  Australia's Parliament on Wednesday lifted a ban on cloning human embryos for stem cell research despite opposition from the prime minister and other party leaders.

The legislation was approved by a vote of 82 to 62 in the House of Representatives. It was passed by the Senate last month.

Supporting the legislation, Defense Minister Brendan Nelson said his generation had benefited enormously from the scientific endurance and judgment of those who pioneered difficult research and legislation.

"We owe it to the next generation no less to show the same wisdom and indeed the same courage," Nelson said.

The party leaders were among the final speakers in a divisive debate which began in the lower house Monday.

"I've decided to vote against this legislation for the reason that in the end you have to take a stand for some absolutes in our society," Prime Minister John Howard told Parliament. "And I think what we're talking about here is a moral absolute and that is why I can't support the legislation."

Opposition Labor Party Leader Kevin Rudd later said he had similarly wrestled with his conscience over the legislation and decided he could not support it.

"I find it very difficult to support a legal regime that results in the creation of a form of human life for the single and explicit purpose of conducting experimentation on that form of human life," Rudd said.

Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile, leader of the Nationals party, and Peter Costello, Howard's deputy in the ruling Liberal Party, also gave their reasons for voting against the bill. There are no other parties represented in the 150-seat lower chamber.

All parties encouraged their lawmakers to vote according to their consciences rather than following party lines. A conscience vote is rare in Australian politics.

"We must not attempt to achieve good ends through what I believe are immoral means," Vaile said.

The House of Representatives debate came after the legislation narrowly passed through the Senate by a 34-32 vote on Nov. 7.

Scientists hope stem cell research will eventually lead to treatments for conditions including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, as well as spinal cord injuries, diabetes and arthritis.

Parliament passed Australia's first laws on stem cell research in 2002, allowing scientists to extract stem cells from spare embryos intended for in vitro fertilization but preventing cell cloning.

The bill passed allows for therapeutic cloning, the splicing of skin cells with eggs to produce an embryo from which stem cells - also known as master cells, which are capable of forming all the tissues of the human body - can be taken.

The government senator who drafted the bill, former Health Minister Kay Patterson, said the law would come into effect in six months after health and science authorities draft guidelines for egg donation and research licenses.

"It will enable Australia to stay at the forefront of medical research," Patterson told reporters after the vote.

"This work's being done in Sweden, England, the United States, in Japan ... and my view was I didn't see how we could accept any treatment derived from this in the future if we didn't allow the research here in Australia," she added.

She said she believed the legislation could be made more liberal and, by law, must be reviewed after three years.

"At some point people will say 'We don't believe the means justify the ends,"' Patterson said. "At the moment, the Parliament has said: 'That's not the case."'

[aeasus]

Awesome!!

I lost my 15 year old daughter to leukemia three years ago, if stem cell research had been done many years ago she may have been saved. This is good news that someone has taken a step in the right direction to unravel the mysteries of cancer

[gramto7]

At least one country isn't being dragged back into the dark ages by the conservative right-wingers who claim to be Christians.

[antoniof123]

When the future looks back at us they are going to ask how did we survive so long. I mean our government has for the last 6 years tried to send us back to the stone age. Maybe now we can move forward again instead of trying to go back.

[marcelde]

Those people "Down Under" have come out ON TOP!

Kudos to reason; rebuff to superstition and prejudice.

[nothappyatall]

FINALLY some medical research progress devoid of the religi-con's stranglehold and obsession with the fetus and cells.

That country will move FORWARD in medical progress, while WE get left behind.

[grumpas]

I am like everyone else here! Finally, someone has managed to leave religion out of it and come out of the darkness into the world of common sense! It's to bad it's the Australian's instead of the US! But, we are going to be in the dark ages as long as religion rule's! They claim to respect life but I personally do not believe it! If they did respect life they would be all for stem cell research, birth control and even abortion! All they seem to care about is the holy fetus, imposing their rigid belief's and religion upon everyone around them! We are living in a world where over population has become a very serious problem! We are going to populate ourselves into oblivion if something constructive isn't done! It's time to put the religious dogma back into the pre historic days where it belongs and deal with reality!

[random_radar]

Soon you will no longer have to have to leave your wife for a younger woman--you can just have her cloned! (And the same is true for women who wish their husbands were young, thin, and still had hair, too!)

[Syndicate]

Actualy human cloning is a ways off. What they are talking about is purley research. There is still some problems with removing primate DNA without seriously damaging it. Sheep have a diffrent DNA packaging mechanism than Primates. Ever wonder why no one has cloned a chimp yet.

[bellal-2009]

Looks like we'll be going down under for cures. That's fine my family needs a vacation. Do you suppose they'll start globalizing health insurance?

[bmmg39]

Folks, a quick science lesson here: when a sperm combines with an ovum, the result is a new, distinct human being in the embryonic form. Next, the embryo that results from somatic cell nuclear transfer (i.e. cloning) is exactly equivalent to one created sexually (via intercourse or in vitro fertilization). Human embryos are human beings according to SCIENCE, not anyone's religious views.

Not to worry, the U.S will join in on the race, and start a hoax that they were the first in stem cell research, kinda like the race to space between the U.S and the USSR who can get to the moon first, that's was a hoax too