Some  news in the debate on embryonic cloning, with the West Australian Upper House last night voting down a bill to allow this unethical research!

This is a fabulous victory for the value of human life and is almost difficult to take in given the long-running battles on the cloning issue and the disappointing defeat in first the Federal Parliament, and then Victoria, NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT.

The details are that the Human Reproductive Technology Amendment Bill 2007 was defeated in the WA Upper House last night by 18 votes to 15, showing that WA considered the issue on its own merits rather than simply copying the bad decisions of other parliaments.

ACL would like to thank the many supporters in WA who wrote to their Upper House members urging them not to support this bill. We'd also like to thank our supporters in other parts of Australia who have been part of this ongoing battle.

We would particularly like to acknowledge and thank for their hard work in obtaining this WA win: Richard Egan from the Festival of Light, the Coalition for the Defence of Human Life, Dr David van Gend from Australians for Ethical Stem Cell Research, Emeritus Professor Jack Martin from Melbourne University, and Lachlan Dunjey from Medicine with Morality.

We'd also like to acknowledge the work of our own WA State Director, Michelle Pearse, who has been actively lobbying politicians on this issue. On that note, we'd like to express our appreciation of four politicians in the WA Upper House who were active in ensuring that their colleagues were properly informed about the ethical and scientific considerations involved in the WA cloning bill - namely Labor MPs Kate Doust and Ed Dermer, and Liberal MPs Barbara Scott and Helen Morton.

This has been an historic win for those who value life and is also a victory for ethical research - with the latest scientific breakthroughs providing a far better research alternative which does not involve cloning and killing a human embryo. Please click here to read ACL's media release from today to gain more details.

Once again, our sincere thanks to all our supporters who have been active on this issue and to the many other people who have played a key role in this achievement. The next ‘cab off the rank' in terms of cloning will be South Australia - let's pray that this win makes a difference there.

Kind regards

Jim Wallace AM
Managing Director

Australian Christian Lobby