France to import ES cells
On 5 October, French Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and Junior Science Minister François d'Aubert unveiled a temporary measure that will permit the import of human embryonic stem (ES) cells into the country for research purposes. The decree will enable French researchers to engage in human ES cell research before the formation in 2005 of a new agency for biomedicine that will oversee the area. The forthcoming biomedicine agency is being established under bioethics legislation passed in July, which will make France the twenty-second country to allow its scientists to derive human ES cell lines from supernumerary embryos obtained from in vitro fertilization procedures (Nat. Biotechnol. 22, 157–163, 2004); the country will maintain a ban on somatic nuclear cell transfer, however. “I'm sure that the new law will allow French groups to compete with [leading] groups in the UK and Sweden,” says Axel Kahn, director of the Paris-based Cochin Institute for Molecular Genetics and one of the country's most prominent advocates of stem cell research. Meanwhile, Switzerland remains undecided. Its parliament has approved legislation similar to France's, but the Swiss Green party and antiabortion groups have forced a referendum on the issue, which will take place on November 28. CS
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