Australian Parliament legalizes embryonic cloning

Published: 2006-12-14

SYDNEY, Australia (CNS) -- Australian legislators legalized the use of embryonic cloning for research despite objections from Australian Prime Minister John Howard. A Dec. 6 parliamentary vote lifted a four-year ban on human cloning by allowing the cloning of embryos through somatic cell nuclear transfer, commonly called therapeutic cloning. Both the Conservative Party prime minister and the leader of the opposition Labor Party, Kevin Rudd, were opposed to the Parliament's decision. "We lie in an age where we have slid too far into relativism. There are some absolutes in our society, and what we're talking about here is a moral absolute," said Howard. Rudd, a Catholic from Queensland whose mother had Parkinson's disease, said he could not support a bill designed for the "single and explicit purpose of conducting of experimentation on human life." In the week leading up to the parliamentary debate, Cardinal George Pell of Sydney urged politicians to retain the ban on human cloning.

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