WEST BERLIN--The West German government has proposed a ban on the creation of human embryos for research and measures to determine the sex of fetuses developed by artificial insemination. Scientific organizations see the legislation as a threat to all research in the field.
Justice Minister Hans Englehard and Health Minister Rita Süssmuth and Minister of Research and Technology Heinz Riesenhuber have been asked to prepare a draft of what is being called an embryo protection bill. It follows a paper on in vitro fertilization presented last summer by Engelhard.
"A ban on the generation of embryos for the purposes of research would be a step backwards." said Hermann Hepp, director of the medical school at the University of Munich.
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