Compromise on stem cell research framework

Australia's state and territory leaders have agreed on a national framework to back limited embryonic stem cell research.

In arriving at the framework, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) made some changes to the proposal put forward yesterday by Prime Minister John Howard.

Speaking after the meeting today, Howard said these changes included an agreement that embryo donors only need give consent once for stem cell research.

COAG also agreed that the proposed ban on the use of embryos created after today would be lifted after three years, with an ethics panel to review the situation in a year's time.

Howard said the framework provided opportunity, certainty and hope, and balanced ethical considerations with the need for medical research.

Director of the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development's Centre for Early Human Development, Prof Alan Trounson, said the outcome was "fantastic", although the announcement left a cloud hanging over therapeutic cloning.

Trounson said the short-term ban on the use of new embryos, while baffling, would not affect research because enough embryos already existed.

"My only concern would be that if therapeutic cloning procedures were completely banned, that would certainly be regrettable," he said.

"I would hope it would be subject to further discussion in due course."

BresaGen chief executive Dr John Smeaton was similarly disappointed, saying that while the decision was a good one for researchers it failed from a commercial perspective.

"We have moved on from just being in research mode here, we're in the product development phase and for that we need to isolate new cell lines under conditions where the history of the embryo has been documented to satisfy TGA and FDA requirements," Smeaton said.

He said the field could not afford to be one or two years behind the rest of the world.

But state leaders described the COAG agreement as a victory for Australian patients with diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurological disorders.