The Damage Done
A discussion of Australian therapeutic cloning politics at BioMed Central is a vision of what nearly happened - and still could happen - in the US. Therapeutic cloning is vital to much of the most promising research into stem cell based regenerative medicine, but the Australian research community is prevented from contributing their funding and expertise. If we are to move rapidly towards developing a comprehensive biological repair kit for age-related damage and disease - which is exactly what full control over stem cells, reliable therapeutic cloning and understanding of related cellular mechanisms can eventually provide - then these sorts of anti-research legislative restrictions must be lifted. While we delay, people continue to suffer and die.