 |
 |
# 338 Monday, June 4, 2007 - BIG WEDNESDAY: A Stem Cell Politics Surprise? In a few brief hours, I will be driving down Interstate 5, South toward the city of the Angels. There will be a CD playing, (Mandarin in 300 not-so-easy lessons), and I'll be making imitative noises, hopefully recognizable as Chinese language. There will be cans of diet Pepsi in the cooler, the air conditioner will be blasting like the middle of Winter, a luxury my heat-loving Mrs. would never allow-on my way to another ICOC adventure! (Remember, you are welcome to be there too, today, tomorrow, and always-- if you'd like to join us in today's meeting in Los Angeles, just aim your computer to www.CIRM.CA.GOV, click on Upcoming Meetings for the address, come and be a player in the show!) But that's not what I'm talking about right now. Today is for something even bigger, touching the very future of stem cell research itself. This Wednesday, the House of Representatives may take up the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, House Resolution 3, passed in the Senate as S5. Big deal, who cares-the President is going to veto it again anyway? True, Mr. Bush can be counted on to do the wrong thing again. If stubbornness was a virtue, this would be the most virtuous of men. And, according to his calculations, the way (I think) he sees it, we don't have enough votes to override his veto. But there may be a surprise in the works. Here is the newest rumor. A major change will be proposed in the House-a change which will force the bill to be taken up by the Senate again-which gives us another chance to get that 67th vote, the magic veto over-ride majority, two thirds plus one. The change? A ban on reproductive cloning. Now you and I both know reproductive cloning is already illegal two times in California-first prohibited in legislation by Senator Deborah Ortiz and secondly banned in the California Constitution itself, language criminalizing it put there by Proposition 71-and nobody wants it anyway. Here is one thing every scientist, every politician, every citizen blessed with sanity can agree on. Nobody wants this-except the enemies of research-who very much want to keep the issue of reproductive cloning alive as a way to scare people. They use the imaginary threat of cloning babies the same way Weapons of Mass Destruction (nuclear bombs supposedly being developed) were used to justify the invasion of Iraq. There were no WMD's-but the fear of them caused America to allow the invasion of Iraq, which has cost us not only precious lives from our country and theirs, but also earning us the fury of the world-and hundreds of billions of dollars in debt. Reproductive cloning is the bizarre science fiction possibility of multiplying babies through the Dolly the sheep methodology. Not only would this accomplish no useful purpose (we can make plenty babies other ways!) but it would put the life of both mother and child at risk. So if nobody wants it, why ban it? Because the opposition must no longer be allowed to use the fantasy fears of reproductive cloning as a way to block responsible stem cell research. We cannot let them control the terms of the debate. As long as we let the opposition to lump together the realistic with the ridiculous, that long will they be able to block the research we must have. We must separate the fantasy fear of reproductive cloning from the helpful hope of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. Remember SCNT? The stem cell support community has been working so hard to pass the very cautious Stem Cell Research Act that we have almost stopped talking about what we must have to make cures happen. But the needs of the research must not be defined by the current administration's myopia. Longer-sighted people must prevail. If we lived in a world without microscopes, we would have to accept that limitation. But should we pretend microscopes do not exist, because some people find them scary? Last week I had the honor and delight to accidentally sit at a table with Dr. Renee Reijo Pera, the new Director of hESC research at Stanford University. It was a combination fundraiser/educational meeting for Stanford, and Amy Daly had wangled some free tickets-any chance I get to hear greats like Dr. Pera and Irv Weissman talk, I'm there-and by sheer serendipity Dr. Pera and I shared a table. Now, I have heard about Dr. Pera, regarded as one of the most promising young scientists in the world. Naturally I asked her what was the most important avenue for stem cell research to be pursuing, and she gave me a one-word answer. "SCNT", she said, without the slightest hesitation. Now folks, you know me. Since 1994, I have been involved in the quest for cure: first seeking relief for my son Roman's paralysis, then gradually realizing that for him to win, to have a chance to walk again, a greater battle must be won-to bring hope to every suffering citizen around the world. Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) is the single most important advance for all who suffer chronic illness and injury. Patient-specific cell lines, which cannot be rejected by the patient's body because they are part of his or her body-that's only half the possibility-think also of the disease-specific cell lines that will lower medical costs by allowing scientists to study diseases in a Petri dish instead of the patient. But to get there, we must defeat the scare tactics of the ideologues. If we can remove the imaginary threat of reproductive cloning as an issue, their biggest bugaboo, their scariest imaginary Weapon of Mass Deception will be gone. They know this, and we can expect them to fight very hard against a ban on reproductive cloning. Why? They want to ban SCNT too. Stay tuned, folks. Things are about to get interesting. By Don Reed www.stemcellbattles.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn