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EU funds stem cell research
Sydney MX
18 July 2006
LIMITED USE
European Union ministers agreed today to permit limited use of EU funds for research involving human embryonic stem cells, provided it does not entail destroying embryos.
The compromise came just days after President George W. Bush vetoed an expansion of such work in the US in a move that won praise from churches and anti-abortion campaigners.
Germany had led a coalition of eight countries that sought to bar any European public funding for human stem cell research.
The deal paved the way for the adoption of the 25-nation bloc's $94 billion, seven-year science program aimed at narrowing the research gap with the US and spurring economic growth.
EU president Finland said the compromise would ban allocating EU cash for research that involves destroying human embryos, including for the procurement of stem cells.
Extracting the human embryonic stem cells entails destroying the embryo, a step churches and some ethics campaigners say is tantamount to murder.
But ministers agreed after hours of haggling that the EU could fund research into "subsequent steps" involving human embryonic stem cells.
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