Members of France’s opposition party the UMP are attempting to block the progress through parliament of a bill that would relax restrictions on stem-cell research.
The proposed change to the law would see France move from a system that bans stem-cell research, except under certain conditions, to a regime that allows the work to go ahead. The Senate voted in favour of such an amendment in December and the bill was sent to the National Assembly for debate on 28 March.
However, socialist members of the assembly say that members of the opposition attempted to block the progress of the amendment by forcing an earlier debate to drag on, leaving the assembly insufficient time to discuss the stem-cell law.
In a statement, socialist member of parliament Richard Ferrand, attacked the “sabotage” and said that the UMP had disrupted months of work.
The debate on the amendment is now likely to be put back by several weeks.