Australia issues first license to clone human embryos
This one is a month or so old, but it is very important! The Australian government has issued its first license allowing scientists to create cloned human embryos to try and obtain embryonic stem cells. I think this is a very thin line we are walking on. The in vitro-fertilization firm Sydney IVF was granted the license. It is said that they have access to 7,200 human eggs for research. If the project is a success 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 emb...