Bill on prohibition against therapeutic cloning

Bill on prohibition against therapeutic cloning

The Government is today presenting a bill to Parliament proposing a prohibition against the use of therapeutic cloning as a method to produce embryonic stem cells for medical research. The bill also proposes to maintain today`s prohibition on research on human embryos. The Government wants to support research using stem cells derived from adult individuals (adult stem cells).

Recent research indicates that human stem cells may have a great potential for use in medical research and treatment. Stem cells may be derived from different sources. One type of stem cells (embryonic stem cells) may be derived from human embryos, for example spare embryos after IVF-treatment or embryos created by therapeutic cloning. Research on these types of stem cells raises several difficult ethical concerns.

The Government finds it not ethical acceptable to use therapeutic cloning to produce human embryonic stem cells. This method means that a human life is being created solely for research purposes. The Government also wants to maintain today`s prohibition on research on human embryos, cf. section 3-1 of Act 5 August 1994 No. 5 relating to the application of biotechnology in medicine. The bill also proposes to clarify that this prohibition includes research on stem cell lines created by isolating and culturing stem cells from human embryos. Such stem cell lines are available for import from abroad.

It is important to support medical research in order to develop new treatments for severe diseases. Because research on adult stem cells does not raise the same ethical concerns as research on embryonic stem cells, the Government wants to support this type of research.

Contact: Ingrid Renolen, 22 24 87 63, Roger Østbøl, 22 24 82 07