Connect
MJA
MJA

Human embryonic stem cells leap the barrier

David G Penington and Graham F Mitchell
Med J Aust 2007; 187 (3): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2007.tb01168.x
Published online: 6 August 2007

Our democratic processes have moved on — so must our science

In April 2007, Victoria became the first Australian state to enact legislation (the Infertility Treatment Amendment Bill 2007) that followed the passage by federal Parliament in December 2006 of the Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction and the Regulation of Human Embryo Research Amendment Act 2006 (Cwlth). This Act gave effect to most of the recommendations of the Legislation Review Committee, chaired by the late John S Lockhart, which reported in December 2005. The Lockhart Committee engaged in wide community consultation and considered expert advice from many sources before making its recommendations on what was inevitably an issue arousing passionate public debate. Similar intense debate had crossed party lines in both federal and Victorian Parliaments, but with a “conscience vote” in both houses in each instance (allowing members to vote as they personally wished rather than along set political party lines), legislation was passed containing major provisions for strict regulation of all aspects of research involving human embryonic material and the strict prohibition of human cloning for reproductive purposes — with draconian penalties for transgression. Many other prohibitions set out in the previous Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002 (Cwlth) have been firmly retained.


  • 1 Bio21 Australia Ltd, Melbourne, VIV
  • 2 Foursight Associates Pty Ltd, Melbourne, VIC.


Correspondence: dgp@unimelb.edu.au

Acknowledgements: 

Background information for this editorial came from articles commissioned by the Victorian Government from Dr N Gough and from Professors G J V Nossal and G F Mitchell of Foursight Associates.

  • 1. Andrews PW, Benvenisty N, McKay R, et al; Steering Committee of the International Stem Cell Initiative. The International Stem Cell Initiative: toward benchmarks for human embryonic stem cell research. Nat Biotechnol 2005; 23: 795-797.
  • 2. Thomson JA, Itskovitz-Eldor J, Shapiro SS, et al. Embryonic stem cell lines derived from human blastocysts. Science 1998; 282: 1145-1147.
  • 3. Ben-Hur T, Idelson M, Khaner H, et al. Transplantation of human embryonic stem cell-derived neural progenitors improves behavioral deficit in Parkinsonian rats. Stem Cells 2004; 22: 1246-1255.
  • 4. Takagi Y, Takahashi J, Saiki H, et al. Dopaminergic neurons generated from monkey embryonic stem cells function in a Parkinson primate model. J Clin Invest 2005; 115: 102-109.
  • 5. Kehat I, Khimovich L, Caspi O, et al. Electromechanical integration of cardiomyocytes derived from human embryonic stem cells. Nat Biotechnol 2004; 22: 1282-1289.
  • 6. Faulkner J, Keirstead HS. Human embryonic stem cell-derived oligodendrocyte progenitors for the treatment of spinal cord injury. Transpl Immunol 2005; 15: 131-142.
  • 7. Keirstead HS, Nistor G, Bernal G, et al. Human embryonic stem cell-derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cell transplants remyelinate and restore locomotion after spinal cord injury. J Neurosci 2005; 25: 4694-4705.
  • 8. Fujikawa T, Oh SH, Pi L, et al. Teratoma formation leads to failure of treatment for type 1 diabetes using embryonic stem cell-derived insulin-producing cells. Am J Pathol 2005; 166: 1781-1791

Author

remove_circle_outline Delete Author
add_circle_outline Add Author

Comment
Do you have any competing interests to declare? *

I/we agree to assign copyright to the Medical Journal of Australia and agree to the Conditions of publication *
I/we agree to the Terms of use of the Medical Journal of Australia *
Email me when people comment on this article

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.