A prominent Federal MP has compared some medical research in Australian universities with that done in Nazi death camps.

Addressing a Right to Life conference in Melbourne, Chris Pyne said that the moral vacuum of concentration camps, which set no value on human life, foreshadowed 21st Century utilitarian medicine. Mr Pyne, a South Australian Liberal who is parliamentary secretary for family and community services, singled out human embryonic stem cell research for special criticism.

“The claims made for embryo stem cell research, puffed shamelessly in recent days by the press, are by and large immune to moral scrutiny,” he said. “The merest suggestion that a disease may one day be cured is, it seems, enough to ward off any kind of criticism as reactionary and obscurantist.”

The CEO to the National Stem Cell Centre, Dr Hugh Niall, dismissed Mr Pyne’s blast. “Stem cell research is conducted under strict supervision and in accordance with legislation which reflects overall community standards,” he told The Age.

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