A senior Government minister has said he may approve of human embryonic stem-cell research in Ireland in certain circumstances.
Last week, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin said Ireland would not seek to block EU funding for embryonic stem-cell research, despite strong opposition to it from Fianna Fáil MEPs and the Catholic Church.
In an interview to be published tomorrow, Mr Martin said he would approve of stem cell research in Ireland under certain circumstances.
"If it could be shown that embryo stem-cell research could lead to cures, then I would be open to it, at least in terms of supernumerary embryos produced by In-Vitro Fertilisation," Mr Martin told the Irish Catholic.
Supernumerary embryos are considered surplus because they are produced in the IVF process but are not implanted in the intended mother.
Mr Martin accepted that clarification would be needed before any such research took place in Ireland. He said it would have to be determined whether or not the constitutional protection given to the unborn extends to embryos in the lab as well as embryos in the womb.
Mr Martin said Ireland's position on not blocking funding for the research in other countries was influenced by the principle of 'ethical subsidiarity'. Under this principle, no EU member state is obliged to undertake research it considers unethical.
He rejected a suggestion that because part of the money that will be allocated for stem cell research comes from Ireland, we should be allowed to delegate how it is spent. "Our money is part of overall EU funding. You can't say you can spend our money on this, but not on something else."
When the issue came before the European Parliament last week, the majority of Ireland's 13 MEPs, including all four Fianna Fáil members, voted against funding for embryonic stem cell research over the next seven years.
Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa and Fine Gael MEP Avril Doyle voted in favour of the proposal.
MEPs in Strasbourg agreed that a small proportion of the EU's €51 billion research budget could be used for certain research into human stem cells, both adult and embryonic. However, strict conditions will continue to apply to the use of embryonic cells.
Each embryonic project will have to show that the research could not be conducted with adult stem cells, such as those extracted from bone marrow. A majority of EU governments favour continuing this approach.
The Catholic Bishops issued a statement last week in which they said using a human embryo "as an object of research is nothing short of destruction of human life."
Mr Martin is due to vote on the issue as the Irish representative at a meeting of the EU Council of Ministers within the next few months.