Mad science or insane politics

In Australia and in Malta the debate still rages about human stem cells, adult or embryonic, for scientific research on the possibility of cures for many diseases.

The Australian government commissioned the Lockhart Committee to report on therapeutic cloning and then it overruled its expert advice and voted in 2002 to continue the ban on such cloning.

The former Health Minister, Senator Kay Patterson, and Australian Democrat Natasha Stott Despoja are both preparing private members' Bills in the Federal Parliament to reconsider the ban. The present Minister of Health, Tony Abbott, a staunch Catholic and an ex-Jesuit, is leading the charge against the science that many hope one day will deliver miracle medical cures.

Bob Carr, a former NSW Premier (1995/05), says that in his decade as Premier the most impressive human being he met was Christopher Reeve (of Superman fame). Mr Carr says that the late actor not only made the case for research with embryonic stem cells, he left him with a more specific message still: that we must legalise therapeutic cloning.

It seems that fear could again be a crucial factor in shaping this debate. It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear is often used by politicians as it is arguably the most powerful of our emotions.

Many engage in scaremongering about the creation of human-animal hybrids, but as Mr Carr says, that is illegal now and will remain illegal. No one advocates it. No reputable laboratory would waste one minute even thinking about such a lunatic illegal pointless pursuit. There is no plan to manufacture wolf-men or other ridiculous chimeras. There is no proposal to clone human beings.

Cardinal George Pell, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, says that Parliament is the correct place where such decisions should be taken and that robust debate is part of democratic life. That is why the decision by Prime Minister John Howard to allow a conscience vote in the Federal Parliament was applauded.

The Archbishop tells us that the Catholic Church supports adult stem cell research and, in fact, the Archdiocese has made grants for this purpose as he rightly argues that we all want cures for deadly and debilitating diseases. The Church is very much against creating human embryos to destroy them for research purposes.

The Lockhart Committee says the law should only allow the cells developed through therapeutic cloning to grow for 14 days and ban them from ever being implanted into women's wombs.

The argument against therapeutic cloning is reinforced when it is understood that even though no sperm is used to fertilise the egg, if the embryo developed by therapeutic cloning is implanted in a womb it could eventually develop into a human being. This new human would be an exact replica or a clone of the person whose skin or other cell was implanted into the egg.

Many parishioners in Catholic churches in Australia are signing petitions as they are saying that the legislation will run counter to the respect due to every human life, even in embryonic stage. They argue that it is never moral to do evil for a good end.

Cardinal Pell insists that the decision on stem cell research should not be made on theological grounds but on the best moral and scientific reasoning and information available. There is no doubt that therapeutic cloning holds great promises for sufferers of diabetes, Alzheimer's, motor neurone disease and untold other afflictions.

As Mr Carr put it so succinctly, this is not the peddling of hope, it's a genuine breakthrough. Nobody is talking of a miracle cure but let's allow doctors and scientists get on with their work. The life saved could be yours or your children's.