Senator warns on stem cell complacency

Australian Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja has warned Australian stem cell researchers not to be complacent as the review on the 2002 cloning and stem cell legislation draws close.

It's the second warning from a member of parliament in three weeks -- at the recent AusBiotech conference, Industry minister Ian Macfarlane told researchers to be prepared for another round of debates on the controversial issue.

"The debate can lead to legislative change... and that change can go backwards as well as forwards," Stott Despoja, a staunch supporter of stem cell research, told Australian Biotechnology News this week.

The key issue in the upcoming review was likely to be the current moratorium on so-called therapeutic cloning -- the use of techniques including nuclear transfer to create embryonic stem cells for therapeutic use -- and future directions of the research.

Stott Despoja warned that it was likely that some members of parliament would argue to curtail the restrictions on working with cells derived from excess IVF embryos even more.

"This time around, with new senators... I don't think we can dismiss the more conservative views, but it's yet to be tested," she said.

2002's debate on the use of stem cells derived from embryos was a long and acrimonious debate, she said, and in the current political climate it was unclear what would happen during and after the upcoming review.

"I'd like to think the situation won't be repeated but there are some conservative politicians with a clear agenda so I don't know," Stott Despoja said.

This was despite clear indications that the Australian public was in favour of stem cell research, both adult and embryonic. "People are not as frightened as some would have them be," she said.

Stott Despoja also said she would support discussion on the establishment of a national stem cell bank, along the lines of the recently established UK Stem Cell Bank, as part of the review or as a separate review. "It's a great chance to learn about the UK experience," she said. She noted that the UK had taken a measured approach to embryonic stem cell research, despite having passed some of the most liberal legislation, and there was no reason to think that Australia wouldn't be the same if it had comparable legislation.

But Stott Despoja said she was disappointed that Australian stem cell research had not moved forward as quickly as hoped after the passing of its legislation in December 2002. "I didn't expect things to have moved really quickly but I wish Australia had been a little less conservative," she said.

A recent backflip by the federal government which resulted in co-sponsorship of the Costa Rica proposal to the UN to ban therapeutic cloning and related embryonic stem cell research as well as reproductive cloning was mystifying, with no information about whose decision it was to reverse Australia's position, or why, Stott Despoja said.

"There has been an absolute lack of clarity on the UN issue -- no one has been particularly forthcoming on when the decision to sponsor the Costa Rica proposal was made," she said.