Hope lives on: Reagan

Sydney, Nov. 10: President George W. Bush and his conservative supporters may be against it, but the European Union is set to inform member states that they can go ahead with stem-cell research for finding a cure to crippling diseases.

A draft consensus document was today placed before the 7th World Congress for Bioethics which began here yesterday, setting the stage for quality research with embryonic stem cells.

?By February-March next year, we will place the final document before the European Commission which would allow member states to work on the research which will benefit mankind,? said John Harris, a bioethics expert at Manchester University assigned the pivotal role of giving the consensus document final shape.

Scientists and delegates from all parts of the globe have had brainstorming sessions on the moral and ethical questions surrounding cloning of human embryos for stem cell or similar research.

India is opposed to reproductive human cloning but supports it for research on stem cells.

In the US, Bush has opposed government funding for any research involving future destruction of human embryos, though opinion polls have shown strong public opinion in favour of stem-cell research.

The cause has been highlighted by the recent death of Superman actor Christopher Reeve, who had been paralysed neck down after a fall.

Earlier, former US First Lady Nancy Reagan made an impassioned plea for taking stem-cell research out of the political arena, saying it could help cure illnesses like Alzheimer?s which afflicted her husband Ronald Reagan.

Today?s draft resolution showed that a consensus had been reached to allow member states to finally go ahead.

?The member states should also provide security to the researchers and we will talk about it also,? Harris said. ?The scope for research should be widely utilised and the benefits should go everywhere,? he added to thunderous applause.

Scientists at the bioethics congress said stem cells, which can be used to generate virtually any type of specialised cells in the human body, can be used to serve as ?replacement cells? to treat heart ailments, Alzheimer?s disease and cancer among others.

Speaking for stem-cell research, Dan Brock of Harvard University, said: ?The embryo in the 14-day blastocysts stage does not have a moral status (as it has not taken any shape) for people to raise questions on moral grounds.?

S. Julian, from the Oxford and Melbourne University stem cell collaboration department, also agreed that the controversial research should go on.

Even legal experts and scientists from Australia, where embryonic stem cell research is banned, pressed for such research by using rabbit eggs after introducing a human DNA to it.