Australia Scientists May Get Government Licenses to Engage in Human Cloning

Bioethics   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jun 9, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Australia Scientists May Get Government Licenses to Engage in Human Cloning

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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 9
, 2008

Canberra, Australia (LifeNews.com) — Two groups of scientists may receive permission from the Australia government to follow their British counterparts and engage in human cloning. A nine member committee from the National Health and Medical Research Council met Friday to weigh the applications.

The committee could decide as early as next week whether to allow the researchers to move ahead with the grisly science.

The applications from scientists at Monash University and the Australian Stem Cell Centre are the first since the Australian Parliament voted to allow human cloning.

Should the licenses be approved, they would require that any cloned human embryos — unique human beings — be killed seven days after their creation.

Cloning supporters say that ensures reproductive cloning doesn’t take place, where a human embryo would be implanted in a mother’s uterus and eventually be born, but it ensures any of the people created by the research cloning are killed.

Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories director Professor Richard Boyd told the London Telegraph newspaper he thinks the teams will be the first to create cloned human embryos.

A spokesperson from the committee could not say when or if the applications would be approved.