Minister warns on stem cells

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said Australia was "fast becoming an outsider in this field, which was actually pioneered by some of our finest researchers". Senior cabinet minister warns that, if conservative forces succeed in banning groundbreaking embryonic stem-cell research, Australia's reputation as a global player in biotechnology could be undermined.

"We are close to forfeiting our opportunity to oversee the responsible development of this science and leaving it to others who may not be as ethical in their approach," Mr Macfarlane said, explaining that the rest of the world would continue to develop the potential of the science, offering hope to patients suffering a range of debilitating medical conditions.

"It would be naive to think Australia's opposition to this new science could stop or slow its global development. We're just dealing ourselves out of the chance to scrutinise the field and snuffing out the light of a happier, healthier life for generations to come," he continued.

Queensland Nationals senator Ron Boswell - one of the most vocal opponents of the industry and any moves towards legalising so-called therapeutic cloning will probably give his opposition to relaxing the current laws during Senate debate this week.

He beleives that the Government should be putting all its energies into promoting research using adult stem cells rather than having "a divisive debate on cloning" and researchers at the Griffith University had even demonstrated that adult stem cells could develop into new brain, liver, kidney and heart cells.

"Australian researchers are leading in this field and we should be encouraging them as much as possible so that there is a viable alternative to the ethically problematic embryonic stem-cells," he said. "There is no need to even be having this ethical argument over the use of embryonic material when adult stem cells are already being used to study diseases."

Human cloning and therapeutic cloning is banned in Australia but in 2002, scientists have been given access to unwanted human embryos for research purposes. The Victorian Government would allow therapeutic cloning, also known as somatic stem-cell transfer, but the practice is strongly opposed by churches and right-to-life associations.

"This is obviously an issue packed with emotion," said Mr Macfarlane who has organised a forum for federal parliamentarians next week to consider the issues surrounding stem-cell technologies. "I hope there will be a cooling of heads on both sides of the debate, with more people actually listening to the alternative argument," he also said.

The ACT Government yesterday backed a recent call by Victoria for governments to consider relaxing the laws and ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said that "The current reviews of relevant commonwealth legislation are a chance to revisit (our) initial caution, to test the public and scholarly mood and see whether some relaxation might be warranted."

Minister warns on stem cells