Support Adult Stem Cell Research
All types of human cloning are recognized internationally as unethical and repugnant. We ask our political leaders to have regard for the inherent dignity of all human beings, whatever their level of maturity, dependency or ability. We urge our governments to reject all human embryo creation for the purposes of destructive research, and to support ethical research using stem cells from alternate, non-embryonic sources , which have proven results.
The Lockhart Inquiry has recommended to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) the creation of human embryos by cloning and other means, with the deliberate intention of destroying them in experiments . This would be a grave offence to human dignity. It shows total disregard for:
No Human-Animal Hybrids. The Lockhart Inquiry has recommended the creation of human-animal hybrids and chimeras, and embryos created from multiple donors. The Committee has recommended that all conceivable cloning technologies be employed so long as such embryos are not allowed to develop beyond 14 days or be implanted in the womb of a woman. How long before these biotechnologists push for release from these limitations too? Such recommendations are abhorrent and must be completely rejected.
All cloning is reproductive. No cloning is therapeutic. We urge our governments to reject the spurious distinction maintained by the Committee between the ethical status of so-called “therapeutic” and “reproductive” cloning. To produce an embryo is always “reproductive”; to destroy an embryo is never “therapeutic”. The European Parliament has declared the distinction to be a sleight of hand and the Australian Health Ethics Committee described it as lacking transparency and concealing the truth. So-called “therapeutic cloning” involves the manufacture of a new subclass of laboratory humans. This would be the worst of all possible uses of cloning technology.
Maintain strong parental and donor consent procedures. Lockhart Committee Recommendations for watering down the process whereby parents or gamete donors consent to experimentation on their embryos must be rejected.
No cures from embryonic stem cells. The advocates of human embryo experimentation and human cloning have demanded ever-expanding freedoms to create, manipulate and destroy human embryos. They claimed that this would advance the quest for treatments and cures for a variety of human illnesses, but other powerful motives include personal ambition and commercial profits. Some scientists fraudulently claimed to have cloned humans. To date, there have been no cures or treatments from exploitative experimentation on embryos.
As many scientists had predicted, human embryonic stem cells have not proved useful for the development of cures and treatments because they are incompatible with recipients, are inherently unstable and risk dangerous cell mutations. Hence, industry and laboratory publicists have changed tack and called for the broader use of embryos in research including pharmaceutical development. Using human embryos as laboratory test animals must be rejected.
Support ethical non-embryonic stem cell research. We urge governments to support Australia becoming a world leader in the further development of ethical and safe stem cell technologies that use a patient’s own compatible stem cells, cells collected from umbilical cord blood and cells from other non-embryonic sources. Already, such technologies have a proven record of over 60 successful therapies, many reported only in the past four years.
We urge our parliament to say no to the creation of a subclass of experimental humans and animal-human hybrids to be exploited and destroyed as if they were mere laboratory animals.
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