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By Adam Tanner

 
BERLIN, May 4 (Reuters) - The German government, sensitive about medical abuses in the country's Nazi past, reacted coolly on Friday to a call by top scientists to allow research on "stem cells" taken from human embryos.

The German Research Council, the country's main public funding group for academic research, said on Thursday that embryo stem cell research was needed to help fight illness.

Government minister Edelgard Bulmahn commented on Friday: "A change as fundamental as that proposed by the Research Council must be widely discussed and debated by scientists and society."

Bulmahn, minister for education, science, research and technology, said in a statement: "One cannot in an abrupt 180-degree turn set new guidelines that overstep previously established ethical boundaries."

She said a government ethics council should review the issue.

Stem cells are master cells that can develop into different cell types such as blood, brain and bones. Studying them could help scientists develop new cures for diseases.

Some scientists say stem cells from early embryos less than a week old offer the greatest potential for human benefit, but Germany has allowed only research on stem cells from adults.

Bulmahn has said that abuses of science during the Nazi era oblige Germany to be especially wary of potential developments from new scientific techniques. The Research Council also made reference to this past in its statement.

Yet the Research Council, reversing its previous position, now says that under existing rules the country could and should start right away on embryo stem cell research.

"The Research Council now feels that science has now reached a point where potential patients as well as researchers in Germany should no longer be excluded from these developments," the group said in a statement.

"We favour at first using existing possibilities such as importing stem cells," it said. Later the country should also consider changing its embryo protection law, the group said.

Bulmahn disagreed with these conclusions.

"The allowed research on imported embryo stem cells remains problematic as it assumes human embryo use (from abroad) that is banned according to the embryo protection law," she said.

"Thus we fundamentally favour alternative methods to research on embryo stem cells, in particular research on adult stem cells that are ethically unproblematic."

Some German scientists and officials fear a cautious approach on new research will put the country at a disadvantage.

Earlier this year the British parliament gave its final endorsement to rules allowing limited cloning of human embryos, turning a deaf ear to religious leaders who campaigned against the measures.

Advocates hope such techniques will help cure killer ailments such as leukaemia, Parkinson's disease and cancer.

10:26 05-04-01

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