PARIS France looked set on Thursday to maintain its curbs on human embryonic stem cell research after the conservative government fought off a parliamentary bid to liberalize the country's bioethics law.
The National Assembly voted to uphold the curbs in the second reading of the new bioethics law. Conservative legislators and the Roman Catholic Church had protested after an initial Senate vote to authorize this research.
The Senate holds its second reading of the bill in early June. If it votes again to allow embryonic stem cell research, the bill will go to a parliamentary conference committee where the National Assembly version of the bill would take precedence.
France has one of the stricter laws on embryonic stem cell research in Europe, banning it except for research with imported embryos not used for in vitro fertilization in other countries.
Opponents of embryonic stem cell research argue it is morally wrong because it manipulates or destroys human embryos. Supporters see it as a possible avenue toward new treatments for many medical conditions.
Paris Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, head of the Catholic Church in France, urged legislators this week not to liberalize the law, saying that would amount to "a regression in civilization" and open the door to "state-sponsored eugenics."
WASHINGTON Researchers applying modern forensic techniques to a century-old puzzle have laid bare intriguing new details about one of the most notorious scientific hoaxes on record, the so-called Piltdown Man, and are confident in the culprit's identity.
An innovative addressing system that assigns every patch of earth in the world an easy to remember three-word address is being used to help visitors get around at the Olympics in Rio de Jeneiro. Some 500,000 foreigners are expected to pass through the city during the Games that run until August 21.
Paraplegic patients recovered partial control and feeling in their limbs after training to use a variety of brain-machine interface technologies, according to new research published on Thursday in the journal "Scientific Reports."