RespiteMatch.com Health Blog

PM - Thursday, 29 September , 2005 18:25:56
Reporter: Daniel Hoare
MARK COLVIN: The Victorian Government is calling for a relaxation of national laws to allow for more research into stem cell cloning.

The Victorian Treasurer John Brumby says current laws, which only commit the use of spare IVF embryos for stem cell research, are stalling the development of important areas of research.

Mr Brumby appeared before a committee reviewing national cloning legislation in Melbourne today, where he called for new laws to allow for therapeutic cloning of stem cells.

He said there are few ethical implications for therapeutic cloning.

But the Federal Health Minister, Tony Abbott, disagrees.

Daniel Hoare has this report.

DANIEL HOARE: Scientists say therapeutic cloning has enormous potential in treating degenerative diseases such as cancer, spinal disease, cystic fibrosis and Parkinson’s disease.

Therapeutic cloning can be used to grow different types of tissue that are genetically identical to a patient’s. It involves removing the nucleus from a donated egg and replacing it with the nucleus from a patient’s cell. The resulting embryo’s stem cells are collected after about five days, destroying the embryo in the process.

In line with Victoria’s bid to be seen as a world leader in biotechnology, Victorian Treasurer John Brumby is calling for new national laws to allow for therapeutic stem cell research.

He says that the ethical questions raised by therapeutic cloning are minimal.

JOHN BRUMBY: You talk about ethics, you talk about the extraordinary number of people in our community who suffer from degenerative diseases and cancer, spinal disease, cystic fibrosis, Parkinson’s – it is this sort of stem cell research which offers the most potential for tackling these diseases.

DANIEL HOARE: Are we in danger of falling behind other countries if we don’t act now to pursue these areas of research?

JOHN BRUMBY: I don’t think there’s any doubt at all if we don’t open up these opportunities we will fall way behind the rest of the world.

I mean there’s a wave out there, it’s about to break, it’s about to break over us.

Already, the United Kingdom, Singapore, China, South Korea and I think very shortly, California – those four countries now, but California in the future – will all allow this type of stem cell research.

DANIEL HOARE: Not surprisingly, Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott doesn’t agree on the question of ethics.

He says that when the legislation goes before the Federal Parliament, it will require a conscience vote similar to the last national stem cell debate in 2002.

TONY ABBOTT: This has been a conscience vote in the Parliament. It was certainly a conscience vote when this came before the Parliament a few years ago, and I have every reason to think that it will be a conscience vote again.

I would not want to see any relaxation of the law prohibiting human cloning. I would not want to see any further permission for embryo experimentation.

DANIEL HOARE: Dr Andrew Elefanty from Monash University’s Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories says stem cell research has enormous potential for advancing medical research.

ANDREW ELEFANTY: I would hope that embryonic stem cell research and this sort of technology would have the potential to completely sort of change the way in which medicine and therapies are practiced in the future, though of course it’s a little bit of a crystal ball to know over what timeframe that would be.

DANIEL HOARE: Dr Elefanty agrees with the Victorian Treasurer, John Brumby, that Australia will fall behind the rest of the world without new laws to allow therapeutic stem cell research.

ANDREW ELEFANTY: I think that the comments that he makes and the warnings that he sounds are quite valid in that, you know, if Australia does not sort of, you know, maintain it’s sort of impetus and initiative in stem cell research, certainly other countries will move ahead of us in these areas and I think his comments in that sense are quite realistic.

MARK COLVIN: Dr Andrew Elefanty from Monash University’s Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories with Daniel Hoare