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Stem Cells
Parliamentary Library Publications
2 February 2006.
Lockhart Review
- On 17 June 2005, the former Minister for Ageing, the Hon Julie Bishop
MP, appointed a committee
to conduct independent reviews of Australia's Prohibition of
Human Cloning Act 2002 and the Research Involving Human Embryos
Act 2002. The chair was The Hon John S Lockhart AO QC. The Committee's
reports
were released in December 2005.
The Committee made 54 recommendations.
Recommendation 23
Human somatic cell nuclear
transfer should be permitted, under licence, to create and use human
embryo clones for research, training and clinical application, including
the production of human embryonic stem cells, as long as the activity
satisfies all the criteria outlined in the amended Act and these embryos
are not implanted into the body of a woman or allowed to develop for
more than 14 days.
Council of Australian Governments
(COAG)
- Statement
from the 18th COAG meeting in Canberra, 14 July 2006.
Lockhart Review
COAG noted that agreement had not yet been reached across jurisdictions
on all the 54 recommendations of the Lockhart Review Committee Report.
However, COAG agreed that officials would continue to work on those
Lockhart Review recommendations of an administrative nature on which
there is agreement and report back to COAG by December 2006.
While COAG restated its preference for nationally consistent arrangements,
in the absence of national agreement some States and Territories reserved
the right to alter the legislation within their own jurisdictions
to the extent that is within their power.
Useful Web Links
Australia
Overseas
United Kingdom
- The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority
Canada.
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
United States
- National Institutes of Health
- Judith J. Johnson & Erin D. Williams, Human
cloning, CRS Report for Congress, 20 July 2006.
Further References
- Karen, Tumulty, Nancy Gibbs, & Sonja Steptoe, 'Stem
cells. The hope and the hype', Time, 7 August 2006, pp.
27–35.
- 'Making sense of stem cells'.
- 'The politics of science'.
- 'The brawl in California'.
- 'Stem
cells', Nature Insight, vol. 441 no. 7097, 29 June 2006,
pp.1059–1102.
Includes articles:
- Austin Smith, 'A glossary of stem-cell biology', (p.1060).
- K. Hochedlinger & R. Jaenisch, 'Nuclear reprogramming and
pluripotency'—a particularly good, but very technical summary
by Jaenisch, a key player, about obstacles faced by scientists for
each of the major avenues for obtaining human embryonic stem cells
(p.1061–1067).
- O. Lindvall & Z. Kokaia, 'Stem cells for the treatment of
neurological disorders' (p.1094–1096).
- D. Srivastava & K.N. Ivey, 'Potential of stem-cell-based therapies
for heart disease' (p. 1097–1099).
- C. Bordignon, 'Stem-cell therapies for blood diseases' (p. 1100–1102).
- Hane Smith, William Neaves & Steven Teitelbaum, 'Letter:
Adult stem cell treatments for diseases?', Science, 28
July 2006, vol. 313, no. 5786, p. 439.
- includes references to claims that applications of adult stem
cells provide treatments for 65 human illnesses by David A. Prentice,
Family Research Council, and posted on the website of the DoNoHarm:
The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics.
- 'The
lure of stem cell lines', Nature, v 442, n 7101,
2006, pp. 336–337.
- Nature investigates what human embryonic stem-cell lines have
been derived worldwide so far, and why scientists are so desperate
to work with new ones.
- M. Azim Surani and Anne McLaren, 'Stem
cells: a new route to rejuvenation', Nature, 21 September
2006, v. 443(7109), pp. 284-285. Embryonic stem cells are prized
for their ability to mature into all the specialized adult cell types.
It may now be possible to reprogramme adult body cells to have the characteristics
of stem cells.
See also the
Parliamentary Library's Law Internet Resource Guide HEALTH
LAW.
Comments to: Science,
Technology, Environment and Resources Section
Last reviewed
6 November, 2006
by the Parliamentary Library Web Manager
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