Cloning ban may force top scientist out

News in Science - Cloning ban may force top scientist out :

"A leading Australian stem cell scientist says he will consider quitting the country if the federal government doesn't lift its current ban on cloning human embryos for scientific research.

Therapeutic cloning is illegal in Australia but this could change from December pending the outcome of the Lockhart Legislative Review of laws governing cloning and stem cell research."

Things like cloning, which ought to be debated as a nation are not. They are decided away from us. We never get to hear any decent debate but we do get to hear things like scientists will go elsewhere and committees are looking into it. Cloning of human embyos is something we ought to be discussing. Scientists want to be able to research with human embryos incase we fall behind the rest of the world. Sound like the decision has been made and all we need to do is rubber stamp it. Like the nuclear weapons debate...ah yes, we need some of those, because whosie has some. Better make sure we have better ones. We need to stop keeping up with the Jones's and start discussing some if the implications of our modern technological possibilities. Until we are aware of benefits and possible ill uses we are not in the positon to make a sensible decision. Professor Pera may well be right, we may need this research to help us with cures for diseases and conditions which have hitherto been impossible and would then be developed elsewhere. We do have a good track record in restorative therapies. Doesn't alter the fact we are talking about human embryos and cloning so we need to discuss it and understand the implications.