Strong public support for health and medical uses of biotechnology

There have been significant rises in public acceptability of using gene technology in health and medical applications, although people have mixed beliefs about the quality of regulation of biotechnologies in Australia.

This was one of the key findings of a study into public attitudes towards health and medical applications of biotechnology and regulation, released by the Australian Government agency Biotechnology Australia.

Key changes in attitudes since the last survey of public attitudes towards biotechnology in 2005 include:

�� Support for using gene technology to produce medicines rose from 65% to 89%;

�� The acceptability of using stem cells to conduct medical research and treat disease rose from 80% to 92%;

�� Support for using gene technology to produce medicines by introducing genes from humans into bacteria rose from 42% to 55%; and

�� Those who felt that biotechnology would improve our way of life in the future rose from 60% to 68%.

For more information visit

www.biotechnology.gov.au/reports