Fed: PM denies stem cell plan too restrictive
CANBERRA, April 5 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard today denied his plan to allow researchon surplus IVF embryos was too restrictive.
Mr Howard will face a concerted push from state and territory leaders this morningto drop restrictions on the use of embryos and allow therapeutic cloning to proceed.
The states have also vowed to push Mr Howard to back down from moves to seek consentfrom donors and to limit the research to existing embryos, saying it drew an artificialand illogical distinction.
But Mr Howard denied his plan was too restrictive.
"There are something in the order of 60,000 to 70,000 surplus embryos available," hetold Radio 2GB.
"The scientific advice we have is that for practical purposes this will place no restrictionon research.
"It does provide the additional safeguard in a difficult area, that the argument aboutwhether or not you can effectively legislate to prevent the creation of embryos for researchpurposes as distinct from reproductive purposes does not arise if you limit it to thosethat are already in existence."
Mr Howard said he had promised to review the plan after three years.
And while the federal government recognised it could be difficult to get retrospectiveapproval from donors to use existing embryos for research, it would not back down on theissue, he said.
"We'll obviously explore with people the precise wording of the conditions relatingto consent," he said.
"But you cannot have a situation where people have been donors and they as a matterof conscience do not believe the embryos to which they have contributed should be usedfor research.
"It would be a violation of their rights and an assault to their conscience to say`well, we don't care, we're going to go ahead and do it anyway'.
"I don't think that is legitimate and I couldn't support that."
AAP rft/dl
KEYWORD: STEMCELL HOWARD
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