MEPs vote to ban stem cell research on embryos

The European Parliament voted for a ban on embryonic stem cell research yesterday, putting MEPs on a collision course with the British Government and Europe's biotechnology industry.

The vote in Strasbourg heralds the start of a lengthy moral, political and legal battle over the issue, which will need to be agreed by EU member states before coming into law.

The British Parliament voted two years ago to allow limited research on stem cells, which are the source for tissue and organ growth in humans, under strict conditions. The research aims to find cures for medical problems including Parkinson's disease, diabetes and spinal cord injuries.

The proposed directive discussed yesterday was originally designed to guarantee safety standards in transplants, but MEPs added a host of amendments restricting the use of stem cells.

The practice of taking stem cells from embryos has made the issue highly sensitive, particularly among Christian Democrat MEPs, many of whom oppose abortion. "From the moment of the conception, you create all the individual characteristics of a person," said Maria Louise Flemming, an Austrian Christian Democrat.

But David Bowe, Labour's spokesman on the issue in the European Parliament, said the decision "flies in the face of logic and human compassion to seriously curtail potentially groundbreaking areas of scientific research".

The division of opinion reflects the lack of consensus in national capitals with Belgium having no specific rules while Italy, in effect, has a ban.

Because the amendments were passed at the first reading debate, they can be revived in later legislative stages, even if they are taken out by national governments. That means the decision could lead to a protracted stand-off between the European Parliament and some national capitals.

Although Britain allows stem cell research under licence, most studies are run in the United States. The EU research commissioner, Philippe Busquin, warned last month that "the increasingly sceptical climate" was scaring away European biotech companies and research centres away.

Lord May of Oxford, President of the Royal Society, said he was "very disappointed" with the European Parliament's vote, adding: "The original intention of this laudable directive was to protect the health of the recipients of donated tissues or cells, but a small group of zealots wants to widen its scope dogmatically to impose their views on the people of the European Union."

Both Houses of the British Parliament voted two years ago, by margins of more than two to one and after extensive public debate, to allow this research to go ahead. A Mori poll this year showed most Britons support this research.

But John Bowis, Conservative Health spokesman in the European Parliament, said: "It is clear that greater advances are needed before this young science is used on humans. The experience of the Australian cloned sheep Matilda, which disintegrated, shows the enormous uncertainty and potential damage to human health of the use of cloned cells in transplants."