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Family Update is the regular publication of the Australian Family Association.

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Family Update - April-May 2007 Vol.22 No.1 2007

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Oppose Victorian cloning bill
Defenders of human life are again required to protest
against cloning of human embryos for research.
This time it is the Victorian government, introducing
a conscience vote to amend the state’s Infertility
Treatment Act to allow cloning by somatic cell
nuclear transfer, so that an embryo is created from
which stem cells would be harvested. The embryo
would then be destroyed, as the state legislation,
(like the amendments to the relevant federal act in
2006), would make the offence reproduction by
cloning, rather than the cloning itself.
In the federal legislation, provision for creation
of hybrid embryos, using ova from animals, was
omitted as being too controversial and an obstacle
to the passage of the Bill. However, its original
inclusion was an admission by the cloning lobby
that the dangers to women’s health posed by drugs
to cause multiple ovulations might dry up the
supply of donors. Well-documented cases of death
and injury among donors overseas remain potent
warnings against the cloning legislation.
The bill is being presented as procedural, in view of the
federal legislation, and COAG agreement to maintain
uniform laws. It will also be argued that unless state
legislation is passed, Victorian companies will be
left behind, unable to apply for licences under the
federal legislation. Parliamentarians will be urged
to keep Victoria in the forefront of international
research and also not to obstruct the carrying out of
Victoria’s obligations under COAG Agreements.
Behind all of the expressions of compassion and
concern for scientific progress lie some cynical
financial calculations by bio-technology interests,
and a desire on the libertine left to strike a blow
against the so-called Religious Right.
Our arguments remain unchanged and must be
voiced again.
Cloning in itself is an offence against human
dignity and makes of the individual created at
the moment of conception a commodity rather
than a person.
To create an embryo for the purposes of medical
experimentation is morally abhorrent.
To destroy this embryo after experimentation
(harvesting stem cells) involves the taking of a
human life.
The harvesting of human eggs has been shown
to be injurious to women’s health.
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The therapeutic benefits of embryonic stem cells
are at best unlikely, all evidence so far pointing
to there being no likely successful outcomes.
All successful therapeutic stem cell treatments to
date have featured adult stem cells, and current
research suggests that these have more potential
to achieve therapeutic outcomes than embryonic
stem cells. Australian scientists such as the team
at the Griffith University in Queensland are in
fact leaders in this very promising field. They
and their colleagues may be starved of research
funds diverted to pursue the illusory therapeutic
benefits of embryonic stem cells.
For reasons of both compassion and economic
advantage to the state, the Victorian government
should be doing more to support research on
adult stem cells.
The arguments and miracle cure promises of
the embryonic stem cell lobby are deceitful and
conceal a real interest in the more lucrative field
of pharmaceutical testing, intellectual property
creation and the race to successfully clone a
human being.
Even if such cloning technology was to lead to new
therapies (and this remains very unlikely), we need
to ask whether such gains will be worth the trail of
ruthlessly plundered and destroyed human embryos
left in our wake.
We also need to ask whether such therapies could
be worth the suffering, damage and even death
inflicted on large numbers of poor or vulnerable
women who will be pressured and preyed on for
their eggs.
Health Minister Bronwyn has introduced the
legislation to mirror the 2006 Federal amendments,
but Premier Bracks and Treasurer Brumby are
believed to be its most fervent proponents. Indeed,
the story circulated by the Fairfax Press that Steve
Bracks is ‘regarded as a social conservative on many
other issues’ is wearing thinner each day. However,
Opposition leader Baillieu is expected to vote the
same way. The composition and complexion of
the Victorian Parliament are such that it will take
courage on the part of the Nationals, Independents
and members of the Government and Opposition
who are prepared to stand up and put principle
ahead of populism to oppose the amendments.
They will need our support and encouragement.

Contact your member of State Parliament and write to the press, saying that legislation to permit human cloning for research should be opposed as morally wrong and illusory in its alleged scientific, therapeutic and economic benefits. Encourage MPs to stand up for principle rather than populism and to support funding for adult stem cell research. Explain that a ban on reproductive cloning misses the very point that this research involves creating human life only to destroy it.

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