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Shauna
Cutl, long time committee member of the HCF is very ill.
She is in the final stages of rejecting her third kidney transplant, and
desperately needs a match. Please
go straight to Section 5 if this concerns you, and you wish to help. >>
Contents 1.
Introduction 2.
Recent News 3.
The required screening of cloned embryos 4.
Write to you local representative 5.
Shauna needs help! 6. A word from the committee (View
previous Update from the 9th of March 2001)
* To receive Cloning Updates via email, send an email with "Subscribe" as the subject, to CloningUpdate@hotmail.com. The next update is being sent out mid to early April. The HCF will not distribute your email address to third parties. *
1.
>> Introduction On
the 9th of March the International Cloning Consortium (headed by Dr. Antinori
and Dr. Zavos) announced that they would use human cloning technology to help
infertile couples have a child. The
Human Cloning Foundation is supporting this project and is currently collected
donations that will help fund this medical research into reproductive human
cloning. The team includes
scientists from Austria, Italy and Israel.
For more information visit the "Report on the human cloning
conference" page. 2.
>> Recent News Dr.
Zavos is suing Ian Wilmut for calling him a criminal, and he also is suing Rick
Weiss (of the Washington Post) for saying that he was not a member of American
Society of Reproductive Medicine (which he is). In fact, Zavos has been invited to address the ASRM
conference this October. Zavos
has told the HCF that the quoted
"one to
two years to of clinical trials" is an estimate, and that if the Consortium
doesn't think that human cloning is reasonably safe by then, they will wait until it is.
The key is the safety related research that they intend to do in the
meantime. This fact has not been offered by the media any time in the last week.
Which just re-emphasized the HCF's importance in providing both sides of
the argument. Several
possible locations for the Human Cloning project have been speculated including
Caesarea, an Israeli coastal resort (Der Spiegel). The Israeli member of the
team (Dr. Avi Ben-Avraham) told the German news magazine that, "Unlike
Catholicism, Judaism does not rule out cloning." Antinori was quoted by
ANSA as saying he would seek "political and scientific asylum'' in Israel,
if hostility to his project continued in Italy (Haaretz).
Cyprus and the former Soviet Union have also been speculated to be
possible locations. Cypriot-born Dr
Panayiotis Zavos (a reproduction specialist) visited Nicosia (on the 6th of
March) from his home in the United States, to met with Cyprus President Glafcos
Clerides and Health Minister Frixos Savvides.
Zavos presented his human cloning (for infertile couples) proposal to the
government, but immediate reactions were not positive, the Cypriote cabinet has
decided to appoint two bioethics committees to draft legislation on the issue of
cloning; hopefully the benefits of this technology will be examined in detail by
these committees. Certain members
of the Israeli and Cypriote government have attacked the proposal, but with
reproductive human cloning being legal in over 170 countries, location it really
is academic matter . According
to Chairman James Greenwood (R-PA), the Energy and Commerce Committee's
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee will hold a hearing on the Consortiums
project later this month. The
hearing (to be held March 28th) will focus on the adequacy of the Food and Drug
Administration's (FDA) oversight of clinical research using cloning technology
to create a human being (PR newswire). Basically why a Food and Drug Administration feel they have a
right to regulate reproductive technology. The
Rome Medical Association has "summoned" Dr. Antinori for the 22 March.
Benito Meledandri, the president of the group, said: "He must bring
explanations of what experiments he has done and what his plans are."
Dr Antinori's lawyer (Giulio Simeone) warned that the association did not
have the right to prevent the development of research. With
so much anti-reproductive human cloning propaganda being thrown around in the
last week, the average rational HCF member would be forgiven for being somewhat
confused. Is cloning really as
unsafe as they say? The next
submitted article highlights the actual (un-hyped) scientific facts about
chromosomal and genetic screening that the consortium propose to use, and will let
you decide for yourself which account is more balanced, the media's or the
scientists: 3.
>> The required screening of
cloned embryos Dear
Sir, Mark
Westhusin (bovine cloner for ACT) has suggested that the groups intending to use
human cloning technology wait three years until animal cloning is perfected.
The Antinori/Zavos consortium is aiming to have perfected the techniques
in less than two, so why the difference? The
first reason is the rate of research into the developmental abnormalities from
cloning. Three things at present
are reducing NT efficiency. 1.
Chromosomal damage, 2. Histone acetylation and 3. Methylation in the form of
imprinting. 1.
Zavos is quite correct that chromosomal damage is very obvious, and can be
screened out very simply. At a
purely morphological level, cleavage of the embryo is not normal and that embryo
must be discarded. Chromosomal
abnormalities arise because remodelling and reprogramming of the somatic
chromatin is incomplete. Animal
cloners actually discard 90% of their embryos in this way.
However, they do NOT karyotype those embryos that they do implant (bad
idea, as abnormalities thus result). So
why don't they? Well it takes time
and money, and why should they? They
know that for every 10 to 20 actual transferred embryos, they will get a
perfectly normal cloned animal; however they will also get the abnormalities
described in the article. Fine with
animals, not with humans. Which is
why karyotype screening is such an essential component of Zavos's proposal. 2.
Histone acetylation. Histones cause
the DNA to be wrapped up into tightly bound structures called chromatin.
When exposed to the egg cytoplasm this structure begins to decondense and
reprogram. This is also screenable
from karyotype screening. The egg
cytoplasm also changes the gene expression pattern (from somatic to embryonic)
which is observable by genetic screening. When
insufficient reprogramming of gene expression occurs you get problems, so
increasing reprogramming efficiency is a major issue; this is something I'm
working on at the moment by exposing cultured cells to egg extract fractions,
much like PPL have recently done. Gene
expression screening techniques include RT-PCR, RPase assays and micro array
(chip) analysis . 3.
Imprinting. This is a major cause
of developmental abnormality. When
any of the 30 mammalian imprinted genes are not properly reprogrammed, you get
developmental abnormalities. E.g.
IGF2 is the gene that when not reprogrammed properly causes LOS (Large Offspring
Syndrome), I wont go into the mechanics, but it also causes other abnormalities
if methylated. The methylation
state of these 30 genes must be screened for.
The Zavos consortium want to ensure normality, so they intend to screen
for all 30. For
the time being the abnormalities mentioned above can be screened for.
Quite probably in a years time, egg extract fraction exposure, will
reduce the incidence of this chromosomal and genetic damage occurring.
So, Westhusin is correct in his assertion that the longer we wait, the
more efficient the NT process will become, but if Zavos and Antinori pull out,
the Raelians definitely wont (call it their religious imperative). I can't envisage the Raelians conducting screening of embryos
to quite the same level (if at all). If
you don't screen - at present - you will get developmental abnormalities.
The Antinori/Zavos consortium have repeatedly promised to use the
aforementioned screening techniques. If
they step back and let the Raelians clone the fist child...
I dread to think what will happen if the first baby is abnormal in any
way. The HCF must back the Consortium, otherwise a certain
Canadian cult may really mess things up.
And not just for infertile couples, but the backlash against biological
science (due to an abnormal child) will be immense.
Out of the Consortium and the Raelians, only the Consortium can truly
carry out the required screening for a normal child to result.
Sincerely An
anonymous developmental biologist and loyal member of the HCF.
(Please
note. The comments regarding the
Raelians are the authors personal opinion.
The official Human Cloning Foundation position is one of neutrality
towards the Raelians. However, the
Human Cloning Foundation only actively supports and collects donations to fund the
Antinori/Zavos Consortium) [Your donation really can make a difference]
4.
>> Write to you local representative "Cloning
may be considered the last frontier to overcome male sterility and give the
possibility to infertile males to pass on their genetic pattern," Dr.
Antinori 2001. Write
to the representative of your constituency and tell them what you think.
If you are against human cloning for infertile couples, this is your
opinion and you have a right to it. But if you support infertile couples having
a right to use this technology to have a child, then please write and let you
government representative know. Your
letter or email really will make a difference, as most representatives believe
the media's portrayal of a united front against reproductive human cloning.
The reality is that many people are much more open minded, informed and libertarian,
it is these people that tend to support this reproductive technology. Please write or email the relevant authority.
You can find out who is your local representative at:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/ 5.
>> Shauna needs help! One
of the longest running members of the HCF committee is very ill!
Shauna Cutl has been a long term advocate of organ cloning.
An
extract from "Help me clone my Kidneys" (by Shauna Cutl): "I
am a United States citizen who is twenty-seven-years old.
I have had two kidney transplants, and my current transplant is in
failure. I was born with normal
functioning kidneys. I developed a
kidney disease called Membranous Nephrotic Syndrome from being exposed to
hemolytic streptococci several times in my childhood.
The disease caused my kidneys to slowly fail.
I had 45 percent use of my kidneys from the age of nine until I was
seventeen years of age. At that
time I had my first transplant because my kidneys had completely failed. The
kidney was donated from my father, but due to an exposure to a CMV virus in a
blood transfusion the kidney transplanted only lasted for five years.
At that time I had a second transplant.
This kidney was donated from my mother. I
am now in kidney failure for the third time in my life.
I have no prospects for a potential living related donor.
The only thing the doctors can do in order to keep me alive while I am
waiting for a kidney is put me on dialysis.
This is a very painful and physically draining ordeal.
I have to do it every other day for four hours at a time. The dialysis machine removes the waste from my system that
the kidneys cannot. The machine
also removes water, vitamins, and nutrients from my system at the same time it
removes the waste. All of these
items in my blood turn to poison when they cannot be removed naturally.
I have many medical complications due to dialysis.
Vomiting, nausea, extreme pain, the inability to eat, the inability to
drink, the inability to walk, insomnia, and extreme fatigue are only some of the
complications. I have had added
stress to my heart on a dialysis machine, and needed to be rushed to the
emergency room several times for possible heart attacks. I cannot live on
dialysis for more than a few months. It
is too strenuous on my body. I
take immune suppressants in order to keep my adopted kidney alive as long as
possible. These drugs I take have
given me: high blood pressure, cervical cancer, sensitivity to sunlight, hand
tremors, head aches, nausea, an ulcer, easily scaring skin, more facial hair,
abnormal menstrual cycles, water retention, brittle bones (I have broken several
bones since I have been taking the drugs), increased appetite,
stereotypical features such as round face and abdomen, thinning hair,
blemishes, rashes, hot flashes, fatigue, the loss of my thyroid, weight gain,
memory loss, mood swings, depression, and inability to maintain a normal life
style. I
was born with normal kidneys. If
there were any way I could clone my own kidney and have it transplanted into my
own body, I could live a relatively normal life.
I would no longer have to take the immune suppressants.
I should be able to live a long and healthy life without the
complications associated with my immune suppressants.
I could also life without the fear of rejection of the kidney.
It would be a complete and total miracle.
It would save my life." Shauna
is now in the final stages of rejecting her third transplant.
If she doesn't get a matching kidney donated soon she will die. Due
to the government refusing to federally fund research into any form of cloning
(even organ cloning) Shauna may die before science catches up.
All members of the committee want the HCF to be used to send out an
appeal on Shauna's behalf. Her blood type is Type A negative, but type A
positive/negative or type O positive/negative may result in a match. If you sympathise and wish to help, please get in touch with
Shauna. Her email is ShaunaCutl@aol.com.
Shauna Cutl
(c)
Copyright The Human Cloning Foundation 2001. This
update may be copied and distributed as long as it is not altered in
any way.
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