After months of delay and often bitter public debate, Australia's Senate yesterday (December 5) passed legislation regulating embryonic stem (ES) cell research 45 votes to 26, along with a separate bill to ban human cloning. The legislation allows scientists to work with existing ES cell lines and to create new lines from surplus in vitro fertilization embryos created before April 5, 2002. It also signals an end to a patchwork of state and territory rules.

"We're very pleased that this bill has finally passed," said Martin Pera, a cell biologist with Monash University and Chief Science Officer of Australia's new national Centre for Stem Cells and Tissue Repair (CSCTR), to be headquartered in Melbourne. "It's a good piece of legislation and will allow stem cell research to go forward on a sound ethical basis."

Next week the House of Representatives will ratify minor changes made by the Senate to the bill. (The House passed the bill in September.) Then, States and Territories will harmonize their laws to provide a uniform national regime guiding stem cell research.

But the legislation comes at a price. A leading Australian researcher, Alan Trounson of Monash University, was accused by opponents of stem cell research of deliberately misleading politicians about details of ES cell experiments conducted in the United States. Trounson was forced to clarify his comments.

As well, conservative National Party Senator Ron Boswell — under Parliamentary privilege — last month accused Trounson and others of impropriety and conflict of interest over the establishment of the CSCTR, of which Trounson is the Director.

The uncertainty such criticism raised, pushed Prime Minister John Howard to establish an inquiry into A$45 million of Federal funding to the centre. The inquiry is expected to be completed early in the new year.

Despite setbacks and recriminations, the research community has generally welcomed the new legislation. Even Trounson says it is worth the long battle: "It's a good Christmas present."