Victorian therapeutic cloning debate.
Three articles of interest in this weeks Melbourne’s The Age newspaper related to the debate going on in the Victorian state parliament with regard to removing the state ban on therapeutic cloning.
The first by Dr Philip Freier, Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, spins the line that the ban should stay in place as cloning of humans is not a good thing.
Of course cloning of humans is not good. However, the reality is that the goal of therapeutic cloning is not to make humans but is about cloning cells. A few cells does not a human make.
This point is made by Maxine Morand, Victorian parliamentary secretary for health, in the second Age article.
The final article by Tommy Lobato, ALP member for Gembrook, makes the same mistake as Freier in mixing up a bunch of cells with an embryo. Lobato also makes the claim that when IVF eggs are thawed they disintegrate, which begs the question how are they are currently used in IVF? Obviously she’s not looking at things too logically. However, she goes on to make a fair point about the risks involved in egg harvesting.
But my main problem with Lobato is the spurious arguments she uses. She claims “in another four years or before, the Parliament will be asked to allow the embryo created through the SCNT [Somatic cell nuclear transfer] process to be implanted into a uterus because research outcomes are not being realised due to limitations”.
The proposed legislation specifically does not allow such an implantation to occur. Now really think about this, would any government in Australia if asked allow this to happen? Would any woman allow this to happen? No they bloody well would not. Yet this seems to be Lobato’s ultimate argument against therapeutic cloning, that reseachers, parliaments and women can’t be trusted and given the chance they’ll all run off and clone a human or two.
Yes there are issues with this type of research and yes it needs to be closely monitored and regulated; as all medical research should be. But it shouldn’t be stopped because some people can’t differentiate between a bundle of a 100 or so cells and a human life. Or because of some people’s irrational fears of mad scientists.
