“DO NO HARM”
Australians for Ethical Medical Research
MEDIA RELEASE – Friday 11th August 2006
“Backbencher Mal Washer’s description of Federal Cabinet’s position on cloning as ‘psychotic’ and ‘insanely arrogant’ is foolish language coming from a doctor. He has lost the plot,” said Dr David van Gend, spokesman for DO NO HARM, a national association promoting stem cell science but opposing embryo destruction.
“Dr Washer shows complete ignorance of the true shape of stem cell science. He must know that embryonic stem cells remain medically useless and dangerous, a conjurer’s side-show, good for doing tricks in rats but completely unusable in humans - for reasons such as immune rejection, genetic instability and tumour formation.
“He must know that adult stem cells are now used safely in 72 human conditions, including a trial in spinal injury published in June in the Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine. He must know of the successful treatment of rat Parkinsons using adult stem cells at Griffith University, with primate trials now planned.
“Even if he falls back on the more modest ‘research uses’ of cloning – drug testing and genetic study of disease – he must realize that these have been rendered redundant by adult stem cell advances. What does Washer make of Griffith Professor Alan Mackey-Sim’s statement that such adult stem cell lines as they possess are likely to ‘render therapeutic cloning irrelevant and impractical”?
“From the way Cabinet has been clubbed over the head this week by Washer and a couple of other misguided MPs, anybody would think that the views of the six unrepresentative citizens on the Lockhart Committee outweighs the unanimous vote of Parliament” said Dr David van Gend.
“The Lockhart report is a travel guide to the Brave New World – hybridizing humans and animals, creating cloned embryos as mere laboratory animals without any mother or father to protect them – and reflects the interesting worldview of those six citizens. They were appointed under the auspices of pro-cloning Minister Julie Bishop, and gave us a predictably radical report.
“But Cabinet is entirely reasonable in refusing to revisit the prolonged conscience vote of in 2002 which banned cloning, since nothing at all has changed since then in the science of human cloning and nothing can change in the ethics of deliberately creating human embryos with their destruction in mind.
“Washer is wrong. We have to keep saying no to the deliberate creation of embryonic humans for scientific exploitation. But the good news is we will still get great benefits from stem cell science without cloning.” ENDS
FOR COMMENT OR INTERVIEW: Dr David van Gend
Spokesman: DO NO HARM: Australian for Ethical Medical Research; 0417007066; 07-46329377