Action Australia

NSW Council of Churches opposes human cloning

Media Release: 5 June 2007

The President of the NSW Council of Churches, Mr David Crawford, today supported fresh calls by the Anglican and Catholic Churches urging all NSW Parliamentary representatives not to vote in favour of a bill to amend current legislation on human cloning.

Mr Crawford advised that the NSW Council of Churches had established a policy on human cloning in October 2006 as follows:

The NSW Council of Churches –

i) affirms the inherent value and vulnerability of human life prior to birth;

ii) recognises the value of advances in biomedicine and biotechnology for human health and wellbeing;

iii) opposes the creation of human embryos and human embryo clones for the purpose of destruction for research, training and clinical application;

iv) opposes experimentation involving fertilisation of human eggs with non-human genetic material and the creation of human embryos using the genetic material of more than two persons; and

v) encourages the development of ethical stem cell research using adult stem cells.

The Human Cloning and Other Prohibited Practices Amendment Bill, debate on which was to resume in the NSW Parliament today, contravened several elements of the NSW Council of Churches policy on human cloning and must therefore be resisted, Mr Crawford said.

He called on Heads of Churches and ordinary Christians throughout NSW to express their opposition to the Bill and to advise their parliamentary representatives of their views.

ENDS

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