PARIS Given the opportunity last week to legalize therapeutic cloning in France, the country’s National Assembly finally voted against it. (See BioWorld International, Jan. 16, 2002.)

A substantial majority rejected an amendment to the government’s “bioethics” bill introduced by Henri Emmanuelli, chairman of the parliamentary finance committee, with the support of 28 other members of the governing Socialist party and the strong backing of the French biotechnology industry association, France Biotech.

The deputies were swayed by the arguments of opponents who claimed that the potential medical benefits did not outweigh the risks, especially the danger of a trade developing in eggs. James Etheridge