Spain to Allow
Therapeutic Cloning, Minister Says
By REUTERS from the
NYTimes on the Web. July 11, 2005
MADRID -- Spain plans to
introduce legislation allowing therapeutic cloning, its Health Minister said on
Monday, a decision likely to bring a new clash between the governing Socialists
and the Roman Catholic church.
In an interview in newspaper El Mundo, Elena Salgado said the legislation could
be effective by next year.
"The Church has always been opposed to the advances of science, but fortunately
science has continued progressing. And thanks to that we live in better
conditions," she said.
Therapeutic cloning involves creating embryos as a source of stem cells to cure
diseases. The process is controversial because the embryos are later
discarded.
Governments of countries including Britain, Belgium, Singapore and China say the
technique offers hope for a cure to conditions such as diabetes, Alzheimer's and
spinal cord injuries.
But the Vatican, the Bush administration in the United States and anti-abortion
groups argue that it constitutes the taking of human lives.
Salgado said strict limits would be placed on how the cloning technology is used
in Spain.
"When we talk about therapeutic cloning, what is clear is that reproductive
cloning is absolutely forbidden and that is a limit which will never be
surpassed," she said.
Spain's governing Socialists have caused a furor among some of the country's
Catholics with a series of moves, in particular in recent months by approving
gay marriage, which the church argues threatens the definition of family.
Although most Spaniards are Catholic in name, practice of the faith is lax and
liberal attitudes prevail in society.
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