Australian scientists are uneasy with the fact that backbench members of parliament (MPs) are to pore over a report by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) that recommends a ban on reproductive but not on therapeutic cloning. This political attention is reminiscent of that in the US, where such pressure delayed a National Bioethics Advisory Commission report (http://www.nature.com/nm/breaking_news/), and in the UK (Nature Med. 5, 855; 1999). This means that the NHMRC will now have to defend its own report to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs.

Pressure from conservative government MPs is believed to be behind Australian Health Minister Michael Wooldridge's decision to order a review of the findings. Therapeutic cloning advocate Julian Savulescu from the University of Melbourne's Murdoch Institute warns, "It would be an enormous tragedy, not just for science but for all of us, if legislation was passed prohibiting the development of these technologies for the treatment of human disease."

The parliamentary committee is chaired by Kevin Andrews, a social conservative catholic MP, who is best known for introducing a private member's bill that negated a territory law permitting euthanasia. Andrews is a former medical ethics lawyer and is a prominent member of the 'pro-family' lobby within the governing Liberal Party.

Although the NHMRC is constituted as Australia's health advisory body to the government, these events are adding to concern that it is no longer being allowed to set the agenda on many health issues.