September,
2006 Issue : Queensland & Human Cloning
G'day from the Sentinel Team
This
update highlights another election issue that is easily
overlooked - Human Cloning
A
scary quote from Jillian Abbot, who has written extensively
on genetic engineering:
If we allow cloning for this purpose it will represent
one of the most profound shifts in human behaviour
in recorded history.
It will mean a 180-degree turn,
from being a species that nurtures its offspring,
to one that plunders them.
Question
7 in the Festival of Light, Australia Election Candidate
Questionnaire says:
All
forms of human cloning
are prohibited in all states
of Australia because such cloning undermines the sanctity
and dignity of human life.
Both so-called "therapeutic"
cloning and "reproductive" cloning involve
the artificial creation of human or mixed human-animal
embryos for the purpose of scientific experimentation.
Adult stem cells have produced 70 treatments for various
diseases - without any ethical or tumour problems
which beset potential treatments using human embryonic
stem cells created through "therapeutic"
cloning.
Would you vote to continue the
current ban on all forms of human cloning including
Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer?
You
can find out what your candidate answered to this question
on the FOLA
website ... these pages are being updated daily
with responses.
Will
the next government lead Queenslanders on a path that
values the sanctity of life?
Under
His Banner
Bev Holmes-Brown
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.
Australian
Article August 03, 2006 Steve
Bracks & Peter Beattie: States must go it alone
in race for stem cell gains
Victoria's Steve Bracks
and Queensland's Peter Beattie vow to push on
with stem cell research despite the failure to
get national agreement.
"Victoria
and Queensland have reserved our rights to independently
pursue the next wave of stem cell research in
areas such as somatic cell nuclear transfer.
We
have done so because we believe the present
regulatory climate is holding back research
into new treatments to tackle degenerative diseases
that plague thousands of our states' citizens."
Geoffrey
Bullock, Queensland State Officer for Festival
of Light, Australia sent us the following quotes
showing Peter Beattie's complete turn-about-face
on cloning.
"I believe that human
embryos should not be created for any purpose
other than assisted reproductive technology treatment-the
IVF program" [p.103]
"Like most Australians,
I am opposed to any form of human cloning, be
it reproductive or therapeutic, and believe that
now is the time to prohibit those practices from
occurring in Australia." [p.104]
BHB
Note: I am far from being an expert on this
topic and am reliant on the insight of experts
... according to Dr. David Van Gend, SCNT
is cloning ...
"Please
no deception! Cloning is ‘SCNT' and
‘SCNT' is cloning ! No matter whether
the embryo is destined for research (so-called
‘therapeutic' cloning) or for birth (so-called
‘reproductive' cloning), in
both cases a living embryo is cloned by
the technique of SCNT
"
“Everyone should check
what Lockhart recommended before they
start accusing people of hysteria or inflaming
the debate,” today cautioned The Nationals’ Senate
Leader, Senator Ron Boswell.
...
Lockhart was not keen on getting the eggs from
women. The Report noted that “This procedure
carries significant risks, including, in very
rare cases, infertility or even death.” Lockhart
also said:- “The need for oocytes may therefore
lead to the exploitation of vulnerable women through
financial or other incentives.”
“It was because of these risks that Lockhart recommended
using animal eggs, as has previously been raised
by Alan Trounson and Senator Stott-Despoja in
her address to a Stem Cell Conference in 2004.”
“Most Australians do
not want to go down the path of human/animal hybrids.
And they don’t have to go there because adult
stem cells are already doing the job.”
KEY
FACTS : Cloning
is Wrong; Cloning is Irrelevant!
David
van Gend is a family doctor and university Senior
Lecturer living in Toowoomba, Queensland.
He is spokesman for DO NO HARM: Australians for
Ethical Stem Cell Research (www.cloning.org.au),
and state secretary of the World Federation of
Doctors who Respect Human Life
The following points come from the Do
No Harm website, which is full of related articles
and information.
Cloning
creates a living human embryo, the near-identical
twin of the donor. On
that essential truth there must be no scientific
and political deception.
Cloning
creates a human embryo solely for research,
with its destruction intended - and that is
wrong . We must not create
one life in order to destroy it for the benefit
of another life.
The
cloned embryo, even though created ‘asexually',
is no different in itself to one created ‘sexually'
by ‘egg and sperm', and could, like cloned
animals, be brought to birth.
Please
no deception! Cloning is ‘SCNT' and ‘SCNT'
is cloning ! No matter whether the embryo
is destined for research (so-called ‘therapeutic'
cloning) or for birth (so-called ‘reproductive'
cloning), in both cases
a living embryo is cloned by the technique of
SCNT
Cloning
requires either the harvesting of hundreds
of eggs per clone, commercialising women's
ovaries and risking their health, or using
animal eggs to make a human-animal hybrid
- and that is wrong.
Cloning must be rejected - now as in 2002, when
it was unanimously banned by Parliament . Nothing
has changed since 2002 in the fraud-ridden science
of human cloning, and nothing
can change in the ethics of ‘creating in order
to destroy'.
HOWEVER:
Once cloning is rejected as ethically wrong,
the great consolation is that we will still
get the great benefits of stem cell science
without cloning.
Cloning
is being left ‘impractical and irrelevant' in
serious scientific opinion, since adult stem
cell advances even in Australia are achieving
the goal of ‘patient-specific' stem cell lines,
as well as genuine tissue therapies.
Stem
cells obtained ethically from adult tissue and
umbilical cord blood are used in 72 human conditions
already – embryonic stem cells in NONE,
despite the hype, remaining unusable and dangerous.
Let
Australians lead the world in stem cell research
that is both effective and ethical – research
we can all live with.
NO
HUMAN CLONING!
Article
: Meanings blurred in science's
mad rush to clone
Answer: cloning. There's nothing therapeutic about it,
especially for the embryo created in this process.
The misnomer therapeutic cloning came about after a
failed attempt by scientists working in the fields of
reproductive science and stem-cell research to banish
the word cloning from the lexicon altogether. Unfortunately
for them, everyone instantly saw through their chosen
euphemism, somatic cell nuclear transfer, and understood
it to mean what therapeutic cloning means, that is,
cloning.
...
If we allow cloning for this purpose it will represent
one of the most profound shifts in human behaviour in
recorded history. It will mean a 180-degree turn, from
being a species that nurtures its offspring, to one
that plunders them.
The embryo hype obscures
real scientific advances.
Embryonic
stem cells are less controllable. There have
already been some deaths of people who received stem
cells that then proliferated in an uncontrolled way
A
major area of concern is that stem cell lines, once
created, are not subject to regulation in Australia
... is nothing to stop a private IVF service
investing in and sharing its embryonic stem cell lines
with, for instance, a cosmetic company to make
rejuvenating face creams.
The
lack of available human eggs has also led to some
teams experimenting with human cloning using animal
eggs. Pig and cow eggs have been used. The practice
is unlawful in Australia, but has been recommended
by the Lockhart review. The ethical problem is
that it involves crossing a cultural and moral
barrier between human and animal reproduction.
One
of the Lockhart oddities was recommendation 12 that
creation of human embryos by fertilisation of human
eggs by human sperm should remain restricted to assisted
reproductive technology treatment for the purposes
of reproduction. That is an instance of the extraordinarily
blinkered vision that characterises the report. The
recommendation would prohibit natural fertility.
This
links to an explanatory memorandum that was circulated
by authority of the Prime Minister, the Hon John Howard
MP..... It begins with the following summary:
Consistent
with its object, the Prohibition of Human Cloning Bill
2002:
(a) prohibits the creation, importation, exportation
or implantation of a human embryo clone; and
(b) prohibits the creation, importation, exportation
or implantation of certain other embryos for ethical
and safety reasons.
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Steve
Bracks & Peter Beattie: States must go it alone
in race for stem cell gains 
“Everyone should check
what Lockhart recommended before they
start accusing people of hysteria or inflaming
the debate,” today cautioned The Nationals’ Senate
Leader, Senator Ron Boswell. 
David
van Gend is a family doctor and university Senior
Lecturer living in Toowoomba, Queensland. 