Australian Minister - Scientists Hoodwinking Public on Stem Cells

Federal minister Eric Abetz has attacked the states for blocking John Howard's attempt to extend the three-year moratorium on the use of new stem cells.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research in Australia Gets the Green Light

Sydney, Australia: Prime Minister John Howard has abandoned an effort to extend restrictions on the scientific use of excess IVF embryos after finally failing to obtain state and territory consensus.[...]

As a result, the push to extend for another year a three-year moratorium is due to expire next month. This had raised fears among scientists that he may have been softening his previous solid support for embryo and stem cell research."

The Special Minister of State claimed some scientists were trying to hoodwink the public that embryos were essential for their research, when stem cells taken from adults were proving adequate.

The Prime Minister last week ditched plans to extend the moratorium after failing to get agreement from the states and territories. Embryos created after April 5, 2002 will now be able to be used for research.

Senator Abetz said he was disappointed at the attitude of the premiers and reaffirmed his opposition to embryonic stem cell research.

"Just last week further breakthroughs in adult stem cell research were announced," Senator Abetz said...


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Republican Leader Apologizes for Holocaust Remarks During Stem Cell Debate

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- State House Minority Leader Bruce Chandler apologized Friday for remarks other Republicans made earlier in the week comparing embryonic stem cell research to the Holocaust.

"The references made to the Holocaust were regarded by some, understandably, as insensitive and inappropriate," Chandler, R-Granger, said on the House floor... I offer my apologies to them and to people who have committed their lives to using science to improve humanity."

Rep. Shay Schual-Berke, D-Normandy Park, who sponsored the bill endorsing embryonic stem cell research and who is Jewish, said she believed Chandler's apology was heartfelt, sincere and appropriate.

"We need to take this as an opportunity now to continue to educate and inform," Schual-Berke said.
"I don't know anyone who thinks the horrible events of the Holocaust were anything but an affront to humanity," she added. Comparing the murder of 6 million Jews to stem cell research, she said, "is just unthinkable."

Schual-Berke's bill passed by a vote of 59-36 in the House after an emotional, sometimes tearful debate late Tuesday night...


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Fuchs Debate on the Ethics of Stem Cell Research

Following are remarks made by Alan Fuchs, professor of philosophy, during a debate on the ethics of stem-cell research sponsored by Swem Library.

"I would like to make an argument about the morality of several practices: one [is what] we call reproductive cloning, where we take a nucleus and plant it in an egg cell, then plant it in a mother and grow a fraternal twin from the donor’s cell. This is not a morally desirable practice, at least under the present circumstances. I will, however, suggest that that does not necessarily make it something which we should legally prohibit—that we may not reason simply from the perceived morality of a practice to the question of whether or not it should be legally prohibited. With regard to so-called therapeutic cloning, the use of embryonic stem cells, I will argue that this not only is a moral practice but that it also might be—as Congressman Santos said recently on “The West Wing”—morally obligatory for us to engage. Finally, I want to raise a question about the questions we’re asking: How we are to go about answering them, particularly the matters of using certain kinds of religious perspectives as a means of answering these controversial ethical issues? I will argue that is not appropriate insofar as we, as a multicultural, pluralistic, democratic, constitutional society, have certain forms of reasoning that we must adhere to, and the use of possibly sectarian perspectives is not appropriate use of those forms [...]

We start off as one-celled things, two-celled things, four-celled things, and gradually we start to look like tadpoles, and start differentiating arms and legs, then a heartbeat comes in a few weeks, and then we get brain activity and start to look more and more like persons. This process extends through birth and even into development. So what is going on here? When did that become a person? My response is that it is a gradual process. Very early on there is only a distant resemblance, a basis, a potentiality, but very little of a person. Over time, this becomes greater and greater. And, insofar as we think our moral rights are dependent upon being a person, the degree of moral sanctity of this entity likewise grows with time."

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Madison Bishop Eager to Discuss Stem Cell Issues

Madison Bishop Robert Morlino said, in an interview last week, that the field of bioethics is a complicated one, with rapidly changing technology that makes keeping up to date a challenge.

"The destruction of human life is always and intrinsically evil[...]

Since embryonic stem cell research invariably requires the destruction of the embryo and destruction of an embryo can never be morally licit," embryonic stem cell research is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, he said

For background information on biotechnology issues - as discussed in his recent columns in the Catholic Herald - Morlino relies on the Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a molecular biologist and director of education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. The center analyzes moral issues arising in health care and the life sciences, from feeding tubes for patients in persistent vegetative states, to inducing labor, to embryonic stem cell research.

Pacholczyk last month testified against embryonic stem cell research before the state legislature in Massachusetts, and has spoken on the issue in Wisconsin.

Morlino said he, too, would like to address the issue with state leaders...


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UK Government Calls for Public Debate on Science

Patricia Hewitt,the UK Trade and Industry Secretary, has called for greater public engagement and dialogue on science to help retain the UK's attractiveness in this field when a new survey, called "Science in Society", carried out by MORI, has shown that only 40 per cent of UK adults consider themselves well-informed about science.

"The report, which examined public attitudes to science and scientists, found that over 80% of adults think science makes a good contribution to society and that science will make our lives easier. More than half (56%) of UK adults have taken part in a science-based activity in the last year, outside work.

There has been an increase in the level of trust in scientists in recent years. MORI research for the BMA shows an increase in trust in scientists to tell the truth, from 63% to 70% over the last five years (1).

Only four in ten people feel informed about science. Eight out of ten are supportive of public consultation, and the public is keen for consultation to be followed by action on the outcomes."

The report marks the start of the national science week organised by the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Helen Haste, the association's chair, welcomed Ms Hewitt's comments, explaining that the Association is working towards a culture of openness in which scientists talk about stem cell therapy, nanotechnology or animal cloning in public forums.

Read on full report at mori.com

Nebraska Debate on Cloning, Stem Cell Research And Abortion

Dozens of people packed a hearing into one small meeting room Thursday in the Capitol to testify before the Legislature's Judiciary Committee on four hot-button bills:
- two that would ban human cloning;
- one to end certain stem-cell research at state institutions;
- one to allow doctors to give pain killer to a fetus before performing an abortion.

Sen. Adrian Smith's measure (LB437) would ban reproductive cloning and the creating of embryos for stem-cell research using a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer, more commonly referred to as therapeutic cloning.

A bill (LB580) by Sen. Joel Johnson of Kearney, a physician, would ban reproductive cloning but allow for the creation of embryos for stem-cell research.

Sen. Mike Foley of Lincoln introduced the fetal-tissue research measure (LB750) that would ban using state money or state facilities for research involving the destruction of any human embryo, whether it was donated from an in vitro fertilization clinic, created under the somatic cell nuclear transfer method or acquired from stem cells obtained from abortions.

Embryos are destroyed when stem cells are extracted.

Human reproductive cloning, which has never been done successfully, is a practice rejected by virtually all researchers.

Embryonic stem cells, which are formed in the first days after an egg is fertilized, are the building block for the numerous types of cells that form the bones, skin, flesh and organs of the human body.

Supporters of embryonic stem-cell research say it holds great promise for finding cures for many illnesses, including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, various cancers and spinal cord injuries.

But opponents of the research say it raises ethical concerns and requires the destruction of life.

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