AUSTRALIAN MINISTER CALLS FOR CLONING BAN

April 18, 1997

SYDNEY (DTNS) -- New South Wales is likely to join the growing list of governments to have banned the reproductive cloning of humans.

A Sydney newspaper reported today that NSW Health Minister Andrew Refshauge called for legislation to outlaw reproductive human and animal cloning, as well as the fertilization of animals with human sperm.

Three other Australian states -- Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia -- already have existing legislation preventing reproductive cloning. Australian states enjoy a high degree of legislative autonomy from the federal government.

Dr Refshauge said the community would not tolerate the creation of "aberrations of nature" in Australian laboratories, according to the report.

The Minister simultaneously called for the prohibition of trans-species fertilization, using the fertilization of gorillas with human sperm as an example. Speaking in Parliament, the Health Minister explained the need for the ban as arising because such practices were "no longer the realm of the X-files."

Scottish Scientists announced a successful cloning of an adult ewe in February.