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H.C.F. UPDATE (9th March 2001) Human Cloning Foundation Update: Friday 9th March 2001 >> Contents 1. Human cloning conference today 2. Note from the author 3. Upcoming events 4. Latest news: stem cell break through by PPL 5. Web site changes 6. Excellent submitted piece by Candice 7. A word from the Committee 1 >> Human cloning conference today The international conference on reproductive human cloning is scheduled for today. The conference is being conducted in Rome, and scientists from a variety of different professions will be giving presentations. A significant media presence is expected. The conference is being organized by reproductive specialists Dr. Zavos and Dr. Antinori, to discuss the ethics, science and practicalities of reproductive human cloning. It is anticipated that reasonable guidelines will be established, that allow infertile couples (unable to have a child via any other procedure) to use nuclear transfer (cloning) to conceive a child. This will be a huge victory for reproductive freedom and informed choice. This technology (nuclear transfer) has traditionally been opposed by ignorant illogical factions, who's hysteria has been groundless and founded on misconceptions, incorrect assumptions and blind fear. It is hoped that this novel infertility procedure will be seen for what it actually is, the only way certain infertile couple can have a genetically related child. The only chance for these infertile couples to have a family. 2 >> Note from the Author I find it somewhat infuriating when individuals (such as Caplan), insist that 276 sheep had to die for Dolly to be created: http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,276098-412,00.shtml 277 eggs were enucleated and used in the experiment. Only ten percent of these were ever actually transferred to a recipients. Of those few embryos that were implanted, the vast majority just spontaneously aborted, as (one assumes) the reprogramming of the somatic nucleus was not complete. To suggest that 276 "deaths" were the price for Dolly's life, is to misinterpret the actual data. Also I would like to point out that this experiment was conducted 5 years ago. Kato et al have managed to achieve a success rate in cows over 20 times as high as Wilmut. For the anti-cloning camp to bring up out of date information, and then misinterpret that information when they do, just seems ludicrous to me. I have infinitely more respect for Silver or Pence than I do for Caplan. I would also like to point out that many of the media organizations that have attacked Zavos and Antinori on safety grounds have overlooked several fundamental facts: 1. Zavos is focusing on safety and efficiency, rather than shear numbers, as tends to be the case in animal cloning. 2. Mammalian cloning is more efficient today than it was 5 years ago, when Dolly was created, and Zavos and Antinori have set two years aside to improve that efficiency even further. 3. Embryos can be screened for developmental abnormalities. The vast majority of which are chromosomal, these are easily detected; but this detection protocol is not the norm in mammalian nuclear transfer, and thus the developmental abnormalities that arise are accepted as the norm. These will be avoided in human reproductive cloning because of increased screening and detection protocols. To summarise, the anti-cloning factions have attacked Zavos on safety grounds, but embryonic screening and developmental abnormality detection are Zavos's areas of expertise. He has over twenty years experience in this field. To rank him alongside inexperienced careless animal cloners is an insult. An insult the media have perpetrated unrelentlessly, unremorsefully and irresponsibly. Your Humble Servant R. Moorgate 3 >> Upcoming events Our CEO (R. H. Wicker) is presently inundated with media interviews. Tonight he is on "Fox News Today" at 11:45 Eastern Standard Time. This is for a debate on the ethics and science of human cloning. Also, you should not miss hearing him this Sunday Night, when he will be on "Justice Talk Live" in a discussion they will have about cloning between 9 and 10 in the evening. You can access this by going to (1) "Yahoo.com (2) go to "talk radio streamed live (3) go to News and Sports (4) under talk go to personal interests and look for 'JUSTICE TALK LIVE". Another upcoming event is Mark Eiberts scheduled debate on MSNBC 11:30 (Pacific Time) tonight. He will be debating with Glenn McGee following a report (by MSNBC) on the news conference in Rome. These opportunities should not be missed. Future media appearances by HCF board members and supporters, will be listed in the next HCF Update. 4 >> Latest news: stem cell "break through" by PPL PPL have managed to de-differentiate bovine epithelial (skin) cells and convert them into myocardial (heart) cells. Being a commercial company no paper has been published, but it is widely speculated that they used egg extract factions, and exposed their culture donor cells to these factions. The author sees this technique as somewhat obvious, and wonders why so few researchers are actually studying de-differentiation along these lines. Surani, Wolfe, Kikyo, Gurdon, the list is not particularly long. It should be noted that PPL are still fully backing extracting stem cells from cloned embryonic tissue. Their results are very preliminary, and (at present) both species and tissue specific. Here's a direct link to their site: http://www.ppl-therapeutics.com/html/cfml/index_fullstory.cfm?StoryID=32 5 >> Web-site changes Over the past few weeks the Human Cloning Foundation's website has been undergoing some changes. The homepage has been updated, a streaming news page has been added, various interview transcript pages (with R. H. Wicker) have been posted, our "Mission Statement" has been added and linked to the home page, Mr. Sloan has been removed, a resources page has been set up and finally a new "update" page has been established. The continued development of the site is a priority, and all suggestions are welcome. 6 >> Excellent submitted piece by Candice (Edited and included in this update with the permission of the author.) Benefits of Cloning and Genetic Engineering Jessica Patane, 5 months old, Jessica DelCimmuto, 6 years old, Michael Heitchew, 13 years old, and Max O'Connor, 47 years old. All suffered emotional pain and physical hardship while awaiting an organ donor match, but passed away before one was found. Gregory Brown, age 2, Maria Compagner, age 7, Rob Fowler, age 23, and Margaret Helmick, age 37, are just a few of over 9,000 people who are now on waiting lists and searching for organs for transplantation to save their lives. According to "TransWeb," a website about organ and tissue transplantation and donation, approximately 40% of people put on a waiting list for transplantations die before a match can be found. However, the truth is, if we take healthy cells and grow or repair the organs and tissues these people need, they could live. Unlike cells from an unrelated donor, the person's own cells would sustain no danger of rejection and the patients would be spared the need to take powerful drugs to suppress their immune system. Cloning and genetic engineering is key to the future. If we prohibit it, we are halting scientific progress and preventing scientists from developing medical treatments that could improve the health of American citizens and ultimately save lives. There's no doubt that cloning and genetic engineering is widely debated, and yet people do not know all the benefits it can provide. Using cloning we can create skin for burn victims, brain cells for the brain damaged, hearts, lungs, livers, and kidneys. The technology also could be used to reverse heart attacks. There has been a breakthrough with human stem cells. Embryonic stem cells can be grown to produce organs or tissues to repair or replace damaged ones. Also, scientists believe that they may be able to treat heart attack victims by cloning their healthy cells and injecting them into the areas of the heart that have been damaged. Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States and several other industrial countries. Similarly, islet cells could be created from the skin cells of a diabetic and returned to the patient's pancreas, where they would produce insulin. ES cells could be used to repair tissue damaged by hepatitis, and we could grow nerves or the spinal cord back again when they are injured for quadriplegics and perhaps cure genetic diseases. By combining this knowledge with human cloning technology, it may be possible to produce needed tissue for suffering people that will be free of rejection by their immune systems. We should furthermore be able to clone the bone marrow for children and adults suffering from leukemia, which would allow the patient to avoid the relatively crude radiation and chemotherapy treatments used today. In addition, we may learn how to switch cells on and off through cloning and thus be able to cure cancer and produce effective genetic therapy against cystic fibrosis. Dr. Richard Seed, one of the leading proponents of human cloning technology, suggests that it may someday be possible to reverse the aging process because of what we learn from cloning. "We control all other aspects of our children's lives and identities through powerful social and environmental influences and, in some cases, with the use of powerful drugs like Ritalin and Prozac," notes Silver, a professor in the departments of molecular biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology and the program in neuroscience at Princeton University. " On what basis can we reject positive genetic influences on a person's essence when we accept the rights of parents to benefit their children in every other way?" Just as medications are now used to control some children's lives, cloning could be used to further enhance their right to good health and long lives. What about the human consequences of banning a technology-- the death, disease, disability, indignity, unhappiness, and shattered lives that would result from imposing limits on cloning discoveries and advances? Cloning prohibitionists must be held responsible for preventing the discovery of a cure for AIDS, cancer, Tays-Sachs, or heart disease. Their efforts to ban cloning could stop the creation of new medicines that would help millions of people. The moral issues raised by cloning are neither larger nor more profound than the questions human beings have already faced in regards to such technologies as nuclear energy, recombinant DNA, and computer encryption. They are simply new. People fear that a clone would not be an "individual" but merely a "carbon copy" of someone else. As many scientists have pointed out, a clone would not in fact be an identical copy, but more like a delayed identical twin. Just as identical twins are two separate people-biologically, psychology, morally, and legally, though not genetically-so, too, a clone would be a separate person from his or her twin. The clone would not really be a duplicate, because of environmental factors that would mold him or her into a unique individual. Also, cloning can enable infertile and gay couples to have children. Less than 10% of treatment options work for infertile couples, and the other 90% fails and causes couples to go through physically and emotionally painful procedures for a small chance of having children. Many couples run out of time and money without successfully having children. Insurance companies and governments also are not sympathetic. These procedures are also heart breaking and painful. Another plausible application would be for a couple at high risk of having offspring with a genetic disease. Cloning and genetic engineering would allow us to alter genes to prevent genetic diseases and defects. In addition, the Constitution states that people have the right to privacy. This includes privacy in marital relations and information, instruction, and advice to married couples concerning birth control. Furthermore, not only can cloning save and benefit our lives, it can lead to additional discoveries. It might also shed light on how the environment within the cells of the early embryo regulates gene function. Would you want one of your family members to die of a genetic disease or because they're isn't an organ donor match, when there is a simple solution? If we had not taken chances with other scientific experiments, we wouldn't have the vaccines, knowledge, and other technological achievements we have today. Author: Candice Editor: R. Moorgate Written: 6th March 2001 7 >> A word from the Committee We, the members of the Human Cloning Foundation Committee, sincerely hope you find our site informative. We anticipate that this site will help you, at least to some degree, see past the hysteria usually associated with cloning. Fears born our of ignorance, misinformation, and ridiculous scenarios of exact Xerox copy clones, and cloned armies of Hitlers. These oft described situations are highly irrational, and completely unfeasible. We hope you will join us in our support of the true outcome of this novel technology; reproductive freedom, and individual choice. We have agreed to fund Dr. Zavos and Dr. Antinori, who wish to conduct research into reproductive cloning for therapeutic purposes, to help infertile couples have children. We can not fund this research without donations. If you do support reproductive choice, please donate. Your donation will be used to help fund the research, that will eventually allow infertile couples around the world, have the child they so desire. Thank you The Human Cloning Foundation Committee (www.HumanCloning.org)
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