Church key to Andrews' position

Kevin Andrews, the man accused of having the power to potentially scotch embryonic stem cell research in Australia, certainly can't be accused of ignorant zealotry. Kevin Andrews' adolescence was shadowed by a long struggle against an ultimately fatal illness by his bedridden father.

It may help to explain why the political career of the 46-year-old Victorian Catholic barrister has been marked by consistent opposition to modification and termination of human life.

As Minister for Ageing, Andrews' resistance to embryonic stem (ES) cell research has put him in the political spotlight while Cabinet ponders whether or not to ban ES cell research in Australia.

In a reversal of political norms, his stance on the issue is founded on conviction, not convenience.

While religious beliefs underpin his position, Andrews can also argue his case with considerable intellectual vigour.

He wrote his master's thesis on genes and ethics while taking a law degree at Monash University around 1980 and has since co-authored a number of publications on biomedical ethics. They include Trends in Biomedical Regulation and Issues in Biomedical Ethics.

Andrews made space for bioethics even in his maiden speech to Parliament in 1991, as the member for the outer metropolitan Melbourne electorate of Menzies.

Five years later he was picked by John Howard to spearhead the Coalition government's campaign against the Northern Territory's euthanasia laws and authored the successful Anti-Euthanasia Bill 1996.

In 1998, Andrews was Howard's choice to chair the House of Representatives Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee examining human cloning and stem cell research issues. When the committee finished two years of hearings last September, Andrews went along with the 10-member panel's unanimous recommendation to allow adult stem cell research. But he filed a dissenting opinion from the majority recommendation on ES cells.

Along with four other members, Andrews came down against the use by researchers of surplus human embryos from fertility programs and wanted research restricted to existing lines of embryonic stem cells.

As Minister for Ageing, Andrews is a member of the Howard government's outer Cabinet. So while he carried the submission on stem cell policy to Cabinet and presumably seized the occasion to argue his case, he is not a full participant in the ongoing Cabinet debate on the issue.

However there is no doubt his views carry weight with John Howard. Given the large vein of ethics and morality running through the ES cell issue, the injection of Andrews' personal religious beliefs into the debate can't be dismissed as inappropriate by opponents.

Nor - thanks to his decades-long interest in bioethics and his contributions to informed discussions - can his views be discounted as mere examples of religious zealotry.