THE Australian Catholic Bishops Conference issued a statement on October 11 condemning proposed legislation before Federal Parliament that seeks to allow human embryo cloning and destructive embryo experimentation.
A bill, introduced by Liberal Senator Kay Patterson, seeks to lift a ban on creating human embryos for stem cell research.
It would allow the use of so-called therapeutic cloning to create embryos for their stem cells, in line with the recommendations of a government commissioned expert review of scientific and ethical issues surrounding the ban.
The bishops said the bill sought to radically revise the decision taken by the same parliament in 2002 to prevent human cloning.
The bishops said that since 2002 there were no new scientific developments to justify more permissive legislation and no change in the fundamental ethical issues.
In 2002 the Federal Parliament passed legislation allowing embryonic stem cell lines to be extracted from viable left over human embryos from the IVF process.
The bishops said the Church was not opposed to stem cell research and supported research based on adult stem cells as well as those derived from umbilical cord blood.
For the full text of the bishops’ statement click here
