Expansionary Institute

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

 
TOKYO (AP) - Japan's parliament passed a measure Thursday making the cloning of humans a crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of $90,000.

The law, which prohibits creating human embryos by inserting somatic cells into an unfertilized egg, is the first in Japan that penalizes a specific kind of research, a parliament spokesman said.

The legislation, which also calls on the government to draft regulations governing cloning technology, passed the upper house by a vote of 229-11. It passed the more powerful lower house earlier in November.

The spokesman said the law also bans mixing human and animal cells to create hybrid embryos and forbids implanting hybrid embryos into human or animal mothers.

The law must be promulgated to take effect, but it was unclear when that might occur.

Legislation or guidelines to ban human cloning are now pending in dozens of nations. Several countries, including Britain, Israel and Germany, already have banned it. In many others no laws specifically ban the practice, but ethical guidelines would appear to prohibit it.

AP-NY-11-30-00 0923EST

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Most consumers not hostile to GMO food -French study
 
PARIS, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Two-thirds of consumers would not be averse to foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) if items were clearly labelled and carried a GMO logo, according to a French study published this week.

The study, by agricultural research institute INRA, points to a gap between the hostility expressed in French public opinion towards transgenic crops and individual purchasing behaviour.

"Are consumers prepared to buy products with a GMO logo? The response is 'yes' for many. Only 35 percent refuse these products," INRA said in the study.

"Two-thirds of consumers accept GMOs and are prepared to buy them, and one third boycott them," Bernard Ruffieux, a researcher who led the study, told Reuters.

He added that consumers were more accepting of gene-altered products as long when they were given information.

The researchers said consumers saw the launch of the first generation of GMOs as "deceitful and forced," which caused initial acceptance of the products to founder.

They said future debates over gene-altered products should focus on the possibility of selections of GMO food instead of non-GMO food.

The study argued that industry players should drop efforts to create lines of non-GMO food, noting that most French consumers were unaware of rules governing labelling and so already consumed GMO products -- often without knowing it.

They cited cereal bars, vegetable oils and products containing starch as examples of foods containing GMOs that were widely consumed.

The study said non-GMO food lines were "technically deceptive," and it criticised the EU's recent rules on GMO food products as possibly inefficient and costly.

Under those regulations, products with any ingredient containing more than one percent of gene-altered material have to be labelled as containing GMOs.

09:53 12-01-00

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