Media Release from Senator Boswell re Patterson's contradictions on cloning  

Cloning statements at odds with Senators' records

“Senator Stott-Despoja writes in The Australian today that ‘nightmarish allusions to Frankenstein and half-human, half animal clones have no place in this debate’. Yet, the Senator painted this very scenario herself in an address to a Stem Cell Conference in 2004 when she said:- ‘Just last month Professor Alan Trounson raised the concept of replacing human eggs with rabbit eggs in therapeutic cloning for the production of embryonic stem cells’,” Nationals Senate Leader, Ron Boswell said today.

“The Lockhart Committee specifically recommended the use of animal eggs because of the difficulties associated with hyper ovulating women to provide the many eggs required. Recommendation 24 reads, ‘In order to reduce the need for human oocytes, transfer of human somatic cell nuclei into animal oocytes should be allowed’.”

“The Lockhart Committee also noted that ‘However, most countries do not allow the creation of hybrid or chimeric embryos involving human tissue’.”

“The advocates of cloning must face up to what they are proposing and not deride those who only speak the truth.”

“Senator Patterson’s intention to introduce a Private Members Bill to allow cloning is at odds with her passionate opposition to cloning during the 2002 debate on embryo research when she told the Senate:-

‘I believe strongly that it is wrong to create human embryos solely for research. It is not morally permissible to develop an embryo with the intent of truncating it at an early stage for the benefit of another human being.’ (Senate Hansard, 12 Nov, 2002).

Senator Patterson also said ‘I believe it is disingenuous to suggest that approving this research will open the door to further killing of living human beings when the Prohibition of Human Cloning Bill 2002 bans the creation of a human embryo for a purpose other than achieving a pregnancy… The establishment of a national regulatory regime in no way heralds an increasingly liberal attitude to research involving human embryos. Nor does it represent the first step on the slippery slope towards human cloning.’

Senator Boswell said that it appeared that the exact opposite was the case.

ENDS

For further information please contact Senator Boswell’s office on 02 6277 3244