Nine ministerial orders published in France's official journal on 23 July 2005 give a restricted licence to a number of national research institutes to import human embryonic stem cells, to cultivate and to conduct research on them for five years. The stem cells created by the destruction of human embryos (a few days old, created in vitro) will be imported from the United States and Israel.
A new law on bioethics was adopted in France in June 2004. It allows embryonic stem cell research, but brands reproductive cloning as a "crime against human species" and foresees heavy sentences for those in breach of the law. Threapeutic cloning is prohibited as well.
In the EU, Austria, Ireland, Lithuania, Poland and the Slovak Republic have prohibited procurement of stem cells from embryos, whereas Germany and Italy only allow the import of new stem cell lines. The most liberal policies are in the UK and Belgium, where the law allows for the creation of human embryos for the procurement of embryonic stem cells.
