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Sweden prepares legislation for therapeutic cloning of human stem cells
Go-ahead for Continued Stem Cell Research in Sweden
Swedish Parliament OK Therapeutic Cloning Law
Swedish Parliament OK Therapeutic Cloning Law
Thursday, 03 February 2005
The Swedish Parliament has voted in favour of the long waited revision of a bioethics law. In the future it will be permitted to research on early human embryo’s for other purposes than improving IVF techniques, to isolate embryonic stem cells and to perform therapeutic cloning in order to extract stem cells. However, reproductive cloning is strictly prohibited.
The new law will take effect 1st April 2005.
L.
Ed.
CellNEWS
05-02-03
Go-ahead for Continued Stem Cell Research in Sweden
Thursday, 25 November 2004
On Tuesday, 23 November, the Committee on Health and Welfare in the Swedish Parliament approved the Government's proposal on stem cell research. It will still be permitted to do research on fertilised human eggs in the future, but reproductive cloning of human beings is to be explicitly forbidden.
Fertilised human eggs may also be used to develop methods for treating serious and as yet incurable diseases. Today researchers work with fertilised human eggs primarily to improve methods used in in vitro fertilisation.
Researchers will be permitted to create stem cells that can develop into tissue or new organs for people who are ill, using what is known as somatic nuclear transfer or therapeutic cloning. This means that the nucleus of an unfertilised egg is removed and replaced with the nucleus of a somatic cell from another human cell. This type of research and research on fertilised human eggs must first be approved in an ethical assessment.
Forbidden to produce children by cloning
The method used in somatic nuclear transfer is partially the same as that used in reproductive cloning, that is to say cloning to produce children. But cloning with the aim of creating new life is to be explicitly and unambiguously forbidden both in research and in other contexts.
According to the proposal the legislative changes will come into force on 1 April 2005. The final debate and voting in the Swedish parliament on this proposal is scheduled for Wednesday, 2 February, 2005.
Source: Go-ahead for continued stem cell research – Press Release from The Swedish Parliament, Tuesday, 23 November 2004.
L.
Ed.
CellNEWS
04-11-25
Sweden prepares legislation for therapeutic cloning of human stem cells
Saturday, 06 March 2004
Writing in the Stockholm-based newspaper, the Daily News (Dagens Nyheter) today, the two government ministers in charge of health, Lars Engqvist, and science and education, Thomas Östros, say the Swedish government now is prepared to push forward with new legislation that will allow human therapeutic cloning under strict ethical guidance, while reproductive cloning in all circumstances will be prohibited.
They also state the promises stem cell research hold of several of the ‘big’ debilitating illnesses that earlier have been difficult or impossible to treat or cure, like Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, heart- and coronary diseases, as well as neurological conditions.
They point out that Swedish scientists have been and are in the forefront of the research leading to the point where the understanding of the importance of stem cells in the human body stands today. One example is the Swedish group that was the first to present evidence of human neuronal stem cells a few years ago.
Research on human eggs and fertilised embryos has been allowed and regulated since 1991 in Sweden. The embryo can only be kept two weeks in the lab, before it has to be destroyed; it can never be implanted in the uterus of a woman when previously used for research; and genetic alterations of the early embryo has not been allowed. This research is also regulated by an ethics legislation on human subjects, updated the 1st January this year. These legislation’s primarily was created to regulate IVF research and procedures in Sweden.
Now the two ministers say it is time to move on and allow research on human embryos for other purposes as well. The most important extension is to allow somatic cell nuclear transfer (or therapeutic cloning), but at the same time explicitly prohibit reproductive cloning in all circumstances, they write.
In Sweden, it is already prohibited to get financial gains from donating, receiving or acting as intermediary to transfer biological material from either living or dead people, as well as from aborted foetuses. This prohibition should also be extended to cells and cell lines in the future, they propose.
This new legislation should improve Swedish researchers ability to maintain their position at the forefront of stem cell and regenerative medicine research, Östros and Englund conclude the article.
They don’t state any time frame for this new legislation to take effect.
Source: "Terapeutisk kloning tillåts" - DN, Saturday, 06 March 2004.
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