Posted on 09/18/2008 11:27:31 AM PDT by BGHater
The Australian government has issued its first license allowing scientists to create cloned human embryos to try and obtain embryonic stem cells.
The in vitro-fertilization firm Sydney IVF was granted the license and reportedly has access to 7,200 human eggs for its research.
If the firm is successful it would be a world first, the Australian government's National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), which granted the license, said on Wednesday.
Scientists in other countries have made stem cells they believe are similar to embryonic cells using a variety of techniques, but none have been able to extract embryonic stem cells from cloned human embryos.
An Australian ban on the research, known as therapeutic cloning or somatic cell nuclear transfer, was lifted in December 2006 after a rare conscience vote in the national parliament.
But the use of excess IVF embryos and the creation and use of other embryos in research is restricted by law through national legislation. Human cloning for reproductive purposes is banned.
Chair of the NHMRC's licensing committee, Dr John Findlay, said Sydney IVF's research would be closely monitored.
"They have been given a license to do therapeutic cloning," Findlay told Reuters, adding the scientists are not licensed to reach the fetal stage.
"They can go to the stage called blastocyst. They must stop at that point," he said. The blastocyst is a very early-stage embryo not yet implanted into the womb.
Findlay said scientists will try and create stem cells from patients who have abnormalities or create stem cell lines which will be compatible with patients which have given the cells.
Initially, any stem cells extracted would be used to test new drugs to fight diseases such as muscular dystrophy and Huntington's disease,and later therapeutic cloning would be used to produce body tissue matched to patients.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Sigh....
So, what is the over/under on the first Replicant?
There probably is a Kobe Tai clone, locked in a basement right now.
I’d buy one of those! Maybe two!
The industry is GOING to need cloning to get as close to identitical (and patentable) cell lines. In addition, while they may claim to be for using “ethical” sources on fetal stem cells at this point, if they are put into common medical use some day, they will need to harvest fetuses to meet the demand.
Call it what it is. Genetic cannibalism. That health breakthrough you are getting from the doctor next month is PEOPLE.
“K-k-kill me!”
Seriously, are embryonic stem cells, cloned from the patient in question, really expected to be any better behaved than nameless fertility-clinic leftovers?
I still recall the article stating that the real intended objective at the bottom of this slippery slope is cloned FETAL tissue.
IMO, clones will become hosts to fallen angels in the end times. Or, just kidding.
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