The scientists, who gave submissions to a federal inquiry into the scientific, ethical and regulatory aspects of human cloning in Australia, said they did not support the reproductive cloning of humans as they could not see how it would benefit humanity. Reproductive cloning would allow the creation of a person with the same genetic make-up as a previously existing person. The inquiry is being conducted by the House of Representatives standing committee on legal and constitutional affairs. Professor Roger Short, from the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Melbourne, told the first of two public forums on human cloning that it would be highly unethical to ban therapeutic cloning. In his submission, Professor Short said there was enormous potential for therapeutic cloning to be used in the treatment of conditions such as AIDS, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and diabetes.
Therapeutic cloning involves growing tissue for patients that is genetically identical to their own.
For example, neural cells could be made for people with Parkinson's disease and in the long-term it is possible whole organs could be grown. In both cases, the patients would be free from the threat of tissue rejection. Professor Bob Williamson, director of the Murdoch Institute for Research into Birth Defects, said therapeutic cloning would involve fusing an egg with its nucleus removed with a cell from a patient's body and allowing it to grow for a few days. He said he did not believe stem cells, grown as cells in culture, were in any way equivalent to human embryos. Therapeutic cloning did not involve the production of a foetus, Professor Short told the inquiry.