Munich

Britain's support for research on cloned stem cells from human embryos (see above) presents Germany with a dilemma. Although neither politicians nor research organizations are seeking changes to Germany's restrictive embryo-protection law, both know the implications of such research taking place in a nearby country.

They are also relaxed at the prospect, however. For if British research shows that scientific techniques banned in Germany can lead to new medical treatments, Germany's attitude may no longer be easy to justify, they say.

Catenhusen: backs adult cells. Credit: MIKE BAILEY/NRAO/AUI

But not everyone is convinced of the medical potential of embryonic stem cells. “Medical breakthroughs are not in sight,” says Wolf-Michael Catenhusen, state secretary for research in the federal science ministry. “Our primary goal therefore remains to develop new therapies by using human adult stem cells.”

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), which funds most German university research, already supports work on adult stem cells under one of its priority programmes. Like the government and the German Chambers of Physicians, the DFG sees no need to relax the embryo-protection law, aware of opposition from ethicists and theologians and widespread public hostility to the cloning of human embryonic stem cells.

“The mere expectation of new medical treatments is an insufficient justification,” says Dietmar Mieth, head of the Centre for Ethics in Science at the University of Tübingen.

Others disagree. Given that both abortion and research on aborted fetuses are legal in Germany, “it is absurd that protection of embryos in culture is stronger than of those in utero,” says Davor Solter, director of the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology in Freiburg.