EMBRYO cloning was an abuse of humanity, as well as scientifically redundant and a waste of scarce public funds, a Queensland stem cell campaigner said.
Do No Harm spokesman Dr David van Gend of Toowoomba said society must reject cloning.
“We can be consoled that the great benefits from stem cell science are coming without the need for cloning,” Dr van Gend said.
Do No Harm is a national association promoting stem cell science but opposing embryo destruction.
Prime Minister John Howard decided earlier this month to allow a conscience vote on the issue of embryonic stem cell research less than four years after parliament voted unanimously against it.
Queensland Right to Life spokeswoman Dr Donna Purcell said the Federal Government should resist pressure to legalise therapeutic cloning, as it is both unnecessary and wrong.
Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott said he was surprised the unanimous 2002 vote was “apparently out of date so soon”.
Meanwhile, the president of Campion College in Sydney, Fr John Fleming, has sent survey results to all federal members of parliament showing that 51 per cent of Australians oppose cloning human embryos as a source of stem cells.
