Stem Cell Bill Passes in Australia

nickd writes "Having recently being passed in the Senate by only 2 votes, an Australian bill to overturn the ban on 'theraputic cloning' has now been passed in the House of Representatives by 82-62. The amendment that was seeking to prevent stem cells being extracted from the eggs of aborted late term female fetuses has also been voted down. The changes will allow scientists to create and use embryos up to 14 days old for research."

Comments

Is there bias showing the article itself?

[BirdDoggy]

Using the term embryo conveys a level of development not present at up to 14 days of development. At 14 days, we're talking about a blastocyst. Technically, it needs to be 3 weeks old before it can be considered an embryo.

Re:Good

[mcrbids]

Genetic research is not and never has been about "aborted embryos". This is one of the most common misconceptions of genetic research.

By the time an abortion has happened, it's WAY TOO LATE to use for genetic research.

What is used are frozen results from fertility clinics. When a couple has trouble reproducing, they'll sample some eggs and sperm from the couple, and put them together. They usually end up with a number of results, perhaps a dozen or more. They then try them, one by one.

When the woman gets pregnant, they're done - and there's usually a few left over.

So, once again: Genetic researchers do not use aborted fetuses.