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ISRAEL: Ministers Prefer Temporary Cloning Ban By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH [log in to unmask] Jan. 12, 2004 Health Minister Dan Naveh and Science and Technology Minister Eliezer Sandberg oppose an open-ended ban on human cloning and genetic changes in reproductive cells, and are instead asking for a five-year extension of the previous five-year prohibition, which expired recently. Last week, the Knesset Science and Technology Committee approved the second and third readings in the plenum of a bill that would set a permanent prohibition on human cloning (using tissue from an individual to make asexual carbon copies of them) and genetic changes in the sperm and ova. Naveh and Sandberg said that the committee decided in contravention of the view of the government and scientific experts. Sandberg said that scientific, technological and social changes might make the law obsolete. He added that if the law is limited to another five years, the subject should be examined by the National Council on Bioethics, which should make its recommendations before the law expires again in 2009. He noted that after the first in-vitro fertilization babies were born, some said the technology was immoral, but today – 25 years later – the procedure is routine and tens of thousands of infants have been conceived and born without any public fuss. SOURCE: Jersusalem Post http://tinyurl.com/2blw6 * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn