STOCKHOLM, March 26, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Swedish government will propose a bill to allow the creation of cloned human embryos strictly for research. Many researchers claim that human embryonic stem cells are necessary for continued research into the medical applications of non-embryonic stem cells. Sweden is a world leader in stem cell research and has one of the world’s largest collection of cultivated embryonic stem cell lines. Sweden’s Gothenburg University, in its collaboration with the Sahlgrenska Hospital, has 19 stem cell lines.
The Swedish bill is expected to be passed and will be introduced into parliament on Monday. The bill will prohibit the implantation of cloned human embryos, which requires that they be killed before being allowed to be born if gestated artificially. Many ethicists, drawing on public repugnance at the idea of cloned children, argue that this is the preferable compromise. More traditional ethics experts, including the Catholic Church, have pointed out that this means the cloned human beings will be created for the express purpose of killing them for their parts thus relegating human beings into mere organ sources.
The recently passed Canadian legislation, Bill C-6, contains clauses that will allow for this so-called “therapeutic cloning” while claiming to ban cloning entirely. Yahoo News coverage: https://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1539&ncid=1539&e=3&u=/afp/20040325/sc_afp/sweden_biotech_cloning_040325163839 See also LifeSiteNews.com page on Canadian Stem Cell Bill C-6 https://www.lifesitenews.com/features/stemcellembryo/c-13reprotechbill.html