French leaders differ on therapeutic cloning

Opening the BioVision forum in Lyon, which was held last week, FrenchPresident Jacques Chirac said the technique of therapeutic cloning had led to the creation of embryos and cells for research purposes and, despite the ban, made reproductive cloning materially possible, with the risks of "commercial traffic in ovocytes."

His concern is shared to some degree by Germany's Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, who had said a few days earlier that he had doubts over therapeutic cloning and called for an ethical debate in Germany.

However, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's government is about to make such cloning possible. Draft revised legislation published at end-November 2000 would legalize it in "cases of necessity" and so ease the ban on embryo research in authorizing the retention of "surplus" embryos (created through in vitro fertilization) for a period of five years.