The state of South Australia could become the first jurisdiction in the world to deal with the new alternative to therapeutic cloning. Although most Australian states quickly passed legislation copying a 2007 Federal law which authorised the creation of cloned embryos, South Australia lagged behind. In the interval came the stunning news that Shinya Yamanaka, of Kyoto University, had created pluripotent cells from ordinary skin cells. Now legislators will have decide whether they will decline to legalise a superseded and ethically contentious technology or press ahead to keep scientists’ options open.

In an article in The Australian, Dr Jack Martin, one of the country’s leading medical scientists, argues forcefully against cloning. “There is no valid reason for any government to consider approval of therapeutic cloning that requires nuclear transfer into human eggs,” he says. “Indeed, it would be prudent to have the 2007 federal legislation taken off the books.”

His confidence in the potential of the reprogrammed cells is supported by a leading stem cell scientist. Writing in Nature, Martin Pera, formerly of Monash University in Melbourne, and now at UCLA, says that “The results raised the hope that, one day, iPS cells might fulfil much of the promise of human embryonic stem cells in research and medicine... So the year 2008 promises to be very exciting for researches interested in pluripotent stem-cell biology.” ~ Nature, Jan 10; Australian, Jan 10; South Australian government