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"Don't Ban Therapeutic Cloning", Canadian Bio-ethicists Urge Parliament By Drog, Section News Posted on Mon Feb 24th, 2003 at 09:48:49 AM EST Canada NewWire reports that several of Canada's top bio-ethicists have united to urge Canada's Parliament to regulate "therapeutic" cloning, but not to prohibit it. They have submitted an opinion editorial entitled "Not all cloning is alike--MPs must not let outrageous claims of Raelians drive national policy development" that has been published in The Hill Times, Canada's parliamentary weekly newspaper. Bill C-13, which is in the final debate stages, calls for a ban on human somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), http://www.stanford.edu/~eclipse9/sts129/cloning/methods.html#scnt commonly known as therapeutic cloning. SCNT involves removing the nucleus of an unfertilized egg cell, replacing it with the material from the nucleus of a "somatic cell" (a skin, heart, or nerve cell, for example), and stimulating this cell to begin dividing. Once the cell begins dividing, stem cells can be extracted 5-6 days later and used for research. "We feel that Parliamentarians are about to pass an unwarranted statutory criminal ban on a potentially useful procedure," says Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy, University of Alberta. "Policy makers must be careful not to let outrageous, unsubstantiated claims drive national policy development," says Peter A. Singer, Professor of Medicine and Director, University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics. "We would be better served to consider regulations that allows for promising research to proceed, so that we won't close the door to potential medical advances and potential life-saving cures for many serious diseases in our society, such as juvenile (type 1) diabetes," says Ron Forbes, President and CEO of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). SOURCE: Sci-Fi Today http://www.scifitoday.com/story/2003/2/24/94849/8236 * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn