Pro-LIFE NEWS

Vol. 19 No.3 - Summer  2002/3                                                                                   Print Post Approved - 33L385/00042

Contents:

- "I really thought this morning of resigning but there are things to be done,"
- Editorial
- Over to You
- How They Voted
- Fetal Models Sent Overseas
- Stem Cells Bill
- Radicals Attack Bush Because of UN Pro-Life Stance
- UNFDA Report Shows Promises of Fertility Reduction Have Not Been Met
- New Life at the Expense of Another
- New Zealand Report
- World View

This is the text from Senator Brian Harradine's Third Reading Speech - Research Involving Embryos Bill

 

 

	I'd like to introduce the Senate to Luke Borden. Luke was an excess IVF embryo left over after IVF treatment. Luke and his twin brother were adopted and are doing well. What the Senate has done today is to hand thousands of embryos like Luke over to researchers and say 'they're all yours - experiment on them as you will. Cut them up, dissect them, test drugs or cosmetics on them -they're all yours' Today we have stripped the embryo of its humanity for utilitarian purposes. We have defined the human embryo as research fodder in the interests of the biotech industry. The Research Involving Embryos Bill 2002 sets a precedent for the vivisection of living embryos. It will entrench the commercialisation and commodification of human life. In the words of a witness to the recent Senate committee inquiry, the bill will permit "the statutory creation of a biological underclass: those unworthy of life but worthy of sacrifice on the commercial slab of experimentation".
Senator Brian Harradine

Human rights commentator Katrina Haller told the Community Affairs Committee:

The use of one group of the human family to serve as experimental subjects, or spare parts resources, for another group is exploitative and abusive. The use of human embryos to serve as experimental subjects for the interests of science, creates a group of human individuals that can be used and destroyed for another group of human individuals. This violates the ethical principles of doing no harm, benefiting the subject experimented on, autonomy, justice and the sanctity of human life.

Despite hours of debate on this bill, much confusion still remains. Many people still think this bill is about stem cells.

During second reading debate Senator Lees made the incredible statement that:

"In dealing with the question here, we need to be clear about what this research actually does and does not do. It does not propose experimentation on human embryos per se."

But that is exactly what the bill does. It permits using embryos in drug and toxicology testing, in training IVF clinicians in lasering, cutting and disinsecting and for "quality assurance" in genetic testing. Any use of human embryos which the licensing committee thinks worthwhile will be approved under this bill.

There is no regulation of industrial and other uses of human embryonic stem cells. There is no restriction on their export or trade. There is no provision even to track the uses of stem cells or to keep donors informed of their end-use. Indeed, such trade will create its own momentum. As one committee witness said: "Where vast sums of money are at stake, it would be impossible to regulate such research so effectively as to prevent more and more destructive research, requiring more and more embryos, be they bar-coded, fresh, frozen."

The Democrats kept saying - "this bill is not the place for these amendments". Well, if not now, when? How long can we wait? Senator Stott Despoja herself has been waiting since 1996 for her patents amendment bill. Her genetic privacy and non-discrimination bill has gone no-where since 1998. She of all people should know how long these things take. We need consumer protection now. We need protection for conscientious objection now. We need whistle blower protection now.

I want to express my great appreciating to those many Senators who have understood the serious public policy implications of this Bill and have given support to my amendments. I want to especially thank all those who may not share my views on some other issues but who are open minded enough and not bound by political expediency to consider the amendments on their merits.

I also proposed an amendment to prohibit the use of human embryos or human embryonic stem cells in the testing, creation or manufacture of pharmaceuticals or cosmetics. Research involving pharmaceuticals and cosmetics is among the most likely uses of human embryos due to the potential financial returns.

Dr Peter Mountford is the Chief Executive of Stem Cell Sciences. An article in The Australian of 1 April reported: "Dr Mountford has never produced a human embryo, but holds a patent on technology he believes will achieve this result by the end of 2002. He plans to commercialise the process within two years by supplying disease-carrying embryonic stem cells to pharmaceutical companies for drug screening."

But this amendment was rejected. In a climate where we are moving away from testing drugs and cosmetics on live animals because of ethical concerns about this practice, it is disturbing that we are about to substitute live human embryos as the preferred laboratory animal for drug and cosmetic testing.

Human research ethics committees

In explaining the licensing system during the committee stages of the Bill the Minister stated that "Before an application can be made to the NHMRC Licensing Committee, it must first be evaluated and approved by an institutional human research ethics committee". When asked whether, in this supposedly open and transparent system, the decision of the human research ethics committees would be made available to the public, the Minister said "it is not necessarily available to the public" and later she admitted that "the evaluation will not be made public".

Given the ethics committee is appointed by the institution making the application. I cannot imagine an institution appointing someone to their committee who is likely to give them any difficulty in getting applications approved - it would not be sensible for them to do so. I tried to have those decisions made public, but the numbers were apparently not there to support the amendment. Without having the decisions of ethics committees made publicly accountable, we will never know whether the process is rigorous.

When this bill passes - as it seems it will - Parliament will have abrogated the foundational principle of the uniform protection of human life. It will have facilitated the deliberate destruction of human life for radically utilitarian, commercial purposes.

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The Melbourne Herald-Sun newspaper deserves credit for seeking the position of all Government and Opposition sitting members on the "life" issues in the lead up to the Victorian state elections on November 30. On November 14 the Herald- Sun published the results of their questioning of the M.P's on "10 big issues" beginning with

* Should capital punishment be reintroduced as a sentence for those found guilty of terrorism?

* Should abortion be completely decriminalised?

* Should single women be allowed access to IVF treatment? and ending with:

* Should euthanasia be allowed in Victoria?

Likewise, the Melbourne Age deserves credit for publishing as its lead letter on November 26 the letter written by the Reverend Andrew M. Clarke, convenor, church and nation committee, Presbyterian Church of Victoria, in which he wrote that he wanted to "know the ethical principles of the candidates for the forthcoming state election" and called upon them to "clearly declare their beliefs and policies on 10 issues," also beginning with euthanasia, stem cell research and abortion." The fundamental issues are not financial but ethical; ethics determine everything-including how the money is spent," he reasoned.

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Black Day for Australians as Human Embryo Research Bill Passes the Senate

Media Release from the West Australian Coalition for the Defence of Human Life

The Coalition for the Defence of Human Life has expressed its sorrow that the Research Involving Human Embryos Bill 2002 passed the Senate by 45 votes to 26 on December 5.

Secretary Ted Watt said "For the first time the Commonwealth Parliament has formally endorsed the direct killing of a whole class of Australians unwanted human embryos. The justification for doing so advanced by the Prime Minister, John Howard, and accepted by the majority in both Houses of Parliament, was that other Australians may benefit from the destruction of these human embryos through possible therapies that maybe developed using human embryonic stem cells.

"This utilitarian reasoning is chilling. Our national Parliament has decided that weaker, smaller, younger, "unwanted" Australians maybe cutup and experimented upon while alive for the benefit of older, bigger, more "wanted" Australians. This decision is an affront to civilised values.

"Worse still, the Senate majority refused to accept crucial amendments that would have limited some of the worst aspects of the Bill. The majority refused an amendment to prohibit using live human embryos to test new pharmaceutical drugs and even refused to require labelling of such drugs so that Australians could make an informed choice as to whether to use medications that had been tested on human embryos or that may contain material derived from human embryos. By doing so the Senate has sought to make all Australians complicit in destructive embryo research.

"Our Coalition, on behalf of all Australians, would like to pay tribute to those Senators who voted against the Bill and especially to those who took the lead in proposing amendments and arguing against the Bill. We particularly acknowledge Senators Harradine, Murphy, Bishop, Hogg, Collins, Barnett, Boswell and Harris.

"We, with other concerned Australians, have launched a petition to the Governor-General, the Right Reverend Dr Peter Hollingworth, urging him to refuse to give the Royal Assent to this Bill. The petition points out that he would surely not sign a Bill for the killing of any other category of human beings.

"If the Bill does become law we remain committed to working for its repeal in three years time when it is to be reviewed by the Commonwealth Parliament. Before then we will work to ensure that all those who are concerned about human life are made aware, as the next Federal election approaches, of how each member of parliament voted on this Bill.

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You may want to thank the following 26 Senators and express your displeasure to the following 45 Senators concerning the embryo bill vote. Write C/o The Senate, Parliament House, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 2600.

How they voted: 

AGAINST.

Alston, R.K.R., Barnett, G., Bishop, T.M., Boswell, R.L.D., Brown, B.J., Buckland, G., Calvert, P.H., Chapman, H.G.P., Collins, J.M.A., Coonan, H.L., Eggleston, A., Ellison, C.M., Forshaw, M.G., Harradine, B., Harris, L., Heffernan, W., Hogg, J.J., Hutchins, S.P., Lightfoot, P.R., Macdonald, J.A.L., McGauran, J.J.J., Minchin, N.H., Murphy, S.M., Santoro, S., Sherry, N.J., Stephens, U.. TOTAL: 26

Allison, L.F., Bartlett, A.J.J., Bolkus, N., Campbell, G., Carr, K.J., Cherry, J.C., Colbeck, R., Conroy, S.M., Cook, P.F.S., Crossin, P.M., Denman, K.J., Evans, C.V., Faulkner, J.P., Ferris, J.M., Greig, B., Hill, R.M., Johnston, D., Kirk, L., Knowles, S.C., Lees, M.H., Ludwig, J.W., Lundy, K.A., Macdonald, I., Mackay, S.M., Marshall, G., Mason, B.J., McLucas, J.E., Moore, C., Murray, A.J.M., Nettle, K., O'Brien, K.W.K., Patterson, K.C., Payne, M.A., Ray, R.F., Reid, M.E., Ridgeway, A.D., Scullion, N.G., Stott Despoja, N., Tchen, T., Tierney, J.W., Troeth, J.M., Vanstone, A.E., Watson, J.O.W., Webber, R., Wong, P.. TOTAL: 45

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ProLife Victoria was recently approached to donate a set of Fetal Models to be used by two pastors of religion working in Kenya and Hungary respectively. Neither had the funds to purchase the sets, but in a spirit of solidarity with our fellow prolifers and mindful of our status as 'the lucky country,' we allowed them to have the sets free of charge. Kenya is currently ravaged by the Aids epidemic and Hungary, still recovering from totalitarian communism, has a very high abortion rate. Both pastors are dealing with the effects of these scourges and assured us "there is much work to be done." The Fetal Models now retail at $180. If any Australian feels they would like to cover the cost of these gifts, Pro Life Victoria would be very grateful. It simply means we can purchase more sets for both here and abroad.

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Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown said he was disappointed amendments put up by his party, including disclosure requirements for researchers, had failed. He said big business was now the driving force behind the bill and he was unlikely to support it. "As the amendments have fallen one after the other, I've moved from wanting to support this legislation to feeling it shouldn't be supported," Senator Brown said. "The legislation is not shaped with humanitarian guidelines, it's shaped for the almighty dollar and I think that's a real pity." 

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International advocates of abortion and population control are showing increasing frustration with the staunchly pro-life and pro-family positions of the Bush administration, even claiming that President Bush has declared "war on women around the globe."

In a November 16 column in the Toronto Star, Michele Landsberg, wife of former UNICEF Executive Director for External Relations Stephen Lewis, unleashed a scathing attack on the Bush administration international policy, as well as upon President Bush, himself. In her column, Landsberg calls Bush "this ignorant man, now hailed as 'shrewd' because he won the election on the backs of the World Trade Centre victims." She claims that Bush is engaged in a "war on women around the globe. Bush is gearing up to police the wombs of the world's women." Landsberg concludes by predicting that "America, once a beacon of feminist achievement, will become a dread example of what can happen when religion and politics entwine to waltz us back to the Dark Ages."

In a recent statement, Dr. Steven Sinding, Director-General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), asserted that "the Bush administration threatens to turn the clock back 40 years with respect to access to health care and education for women. I call upon IPPF's partners and IPPF's members in more than 150 countries worldwide to act on your outrage, for the sake of the world's women. Mobilise your governments and policy makers; voice your concerns; we cannot let such cynical, destructive and retrograde actions go unchallenged."

Critics are incensed by a number of positions taken by the Bush administration that reverse the Clinton administration's international support for abortion. For instance, when a Canadian delegate during this year's UN Child Summit admitted that reproductive health services for children would include abortion, the administration successfully opposed the inclusion of this phrase in the final document. Recently, the administration stated that it would not reaffirm its support for the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development until "reproductive health services" was deleted from the document, since the phrase was now explicitly linked to abortion. And, perhaps most egregious to its critics, the administration cut all US funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) when a US investigation determined that UNFPA still supported forced abortion in China.

... from C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute) - 29 Nov., 2002. Website: "http: l l www.c-fam.org"

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For years, population control advocates have promised that lower fertility rates would result in economic growth. However, in its latest report, UNFPA mentions only a small handful of countries in which it can claim that fertility decline is even partially responsible for economic growth, despite the fact that historically unprecedented fertility decline has now been achieved in most regions of the world. Moreover, the countries they mention are now mired in severe economic down turns.

The Population Division doubts that strong causal links between fertility decline and economic development can be established. According to the Population Division, "There are many paths through which population factors could have either positive or negative effects on development. Empirically it has been difficult to isolate the effects of demographic factors from the many other contributors to economic and environmental change."

One prominent demographer, Dennis Ahlburg, claims that the most effective means to address entrenched poverty in the developing world is to reduce death rates, not birth rates. His thesis suggests that the UN should redouble its efforts to fund traditional health care services, not family planning programs. The UN discussed many of these issues at a recent population conference in Bangkok.

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The following first appeared in Canada's National Post and was written by Mark Pickup, a disability rights activist and writer living in Alberta, Canada

 

In a National Post commentary, Jeff White advocated a "new ethic" that would embrace culling the herd of its lame and sick young. I read White's commentary from my wheelchair and shuddered to think of what sort of hostility his "new ethic" has in store for people like me who made it past infancy. Should I embrace his throwaway society's "new ethic" or even exploit it to my own advantage before the throes of unwanted childbirth?

Earlier this year, German and American researchers reportedly had used embryonic stem cells in animal models to arrest debilitating diseases. The scientist termed their findings a "critical breakthrough" for the treatment of diseases like Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis. Other scientists have speculated that stem cell research also has the potential for developing therapies for Alzeimer's, diabetics, stroke, spinal cord injuries and bone disease. Last month, a Swedish research team reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience that cells harvested from aborted human embryos can help alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson's. About fifty stem cell transplants have been performed on people with multiple sclerosis. Amid this flurry of speculative research and experimental treatments. Canada's Dr Margaret Somerville, founding director of McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, has called for a moratorium on embryo stem research until moral and ethical issues can be addressed.

Really? I have chronic, degenerate multiple sclerosis and osteoporosis (a bone disease). I might benefit from stem cell research. For years, I have lived with the fear that my next address may be a nursing home. I have been haunted and taunted by the thought that I may become one of those sad lumps of humanity propped up in wheelchairs, passing monotonous days, staring out nursing home windows hoping for a visitor. The terror of such a future torments me at night before sleep comes to give me an escape from the images.

I am dazed by a dizzying array of promising developments that could alleviate or deliver me from a disease that is slowly destroying me. Dare I entertain thoughts of walking on my own without relying on contraptions of the disabled for mobility - or that cursed MS fatigue? Imagine! Dancing with my wife or skiing with my children instead of sitting on the sidelines. A dream comes true! All I'd have to do is look the other way for the reality that my deliverance was gained at the expense of another life. Pardon the pun, but I could flesh out the "new ethic" only to increase my own internal deformity. Oh God! I am not enjoying a dream, it's a nightmare!

I should have known it's like a Stephen King novel. I could be released from the risk of breaking bones or continued deterioration with multiple sclerosis by feeding on unwanted human life. To gain my freedom from disease, I would become more wretched by accepting the fruits of robbing another life, existence and a place in the world. My hopes dash.

Pivotal to morality is believing in the equal moral worth of all human life. Science has known for decades that life begins at the point of conception. This fact is not a matter of taste or opinion, it is plain scientific evidence. (Only special agendas try to confuse this reality.) Since early childhood I was taught to seek truth, then live by it. Is truth arbitrary? Are morals fluid? Are ethics situational? Shall I abandon integrity, principle and what the Americans call "self-evident truth" for personal gain? No.

Sadly, I must turn from a hideous therapy that capitalizes on unwanted life. It is better to remain in a half-lead body than to resurrect lost function and lose my humanity. It cannot be. My misfortune has its own illumination.

I am not an island entire unto myself. My decisions must not be solely self-centred; my decisions must take into account possible ramifications on others, society, even implications for posterity. Autonomy is myth. Nobody is independent. All humanity is interdependent as part of the Human Family. My decisions affect others, whether directly, remotely or merely by inference. This must not be overlooked. I must turn away from therapies using stem cells from aborted embryos.

The good news is that adult stem cells can be treated with drugs to mask the immuno-response to a foreign substance. Better yet, stem cells from patients would bypass the problem of immuno-incompatibility. Former biochemist and biologist for America's National Institute for Health Dr Dianne Irving has stated that adult stem cells can be "coaxed" into becoming the type of cells required. Dr Irving emphatically states, "adult stem cells are already closer to the kinds of cells that patients need. So there is really no need to use human embryonic stem cells at all". She sites volumes of medical research articles proving her point.

Really? Maybe there is an acceptable application for me. Imagine regaining lost function without searing my conscience. Imagine, dancing with my wife or walking my daughter down the aisle at her wedding (without canes or crutches) and sleeping at night.

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New Zealand's Abortion Supervisory Committee has complained in its annual report that there are insufficient medical staff to care for women who have had abortions, with just two cities' health authorities providing a full service. (Stuff, 12 December) This could be an attempt to suggest that pro-life medical staff are being uncaring or it could be a ploy to obtain more resources for New Zealand's abortion system. 

PHILIPPINES - A Senator in the Philippines has received the backing of the Catholic Church after he warned that legislation to increase access to birth control was unconstitutional because it would legalise abortifacients. Senator Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr. told parliament that House Bill 4110 and Senate Bill 2335 were contrary _ to the country's pro-life constitution because they "would make all sorts of contraceptives available to women regardless of whether or not those contraceptives may be suspect as abortifacients". The Senator continued: "Women would have the power to end unwanted pregnancies. In blunt talk, that means aborting the foetus; safely, perhaps, for the mother, but most certainly unsafely for the baby whose life would be terminated with extreme prejudice. "A spokesman for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines agreed with the Senator's comments, describing his insights as "invaluable".

UNITED KINGDOM - A pregnant 12-year-old has explained why she decided to keep her child in an interview recently screened on British national television. Amy Crowhurst told ITVl's Tonight with Trevor McDonald programme that she decided against an abortion when she saw her unborn baby's image during an ultrasound scan. Amy, who became pregnant following a brief encounter at a youth club, will be helped by her mother to bring up the child. Amy's story has also been covered in many national and local newspapers across the UK.

UNITED KINGDOM - A court has heard that an audit of British IVF clinics found that five of them had fewer or more human embryos in storage than could be accounted for. In her evidence in the trial of Paul Fielding, an embryologist accused of faking embryo implants, Dr Christine O'Toole of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) revealed that five out of 114 IVF centres had been found to have the wrong number of embryos in storage and that, in one clinic, three embryos were found by chance in ice at the bottom of a storage tank. Dr O'Toole said that the audit had been carried out in late 2000, and that sanctions had been taken against the five unnamed clinics where anomalies were identified.

USA - A second trial involving the use of tissue from aborted foetuses to treat Parkinson's disease has had the same catastrophic results for patients as another trial last year. In the latest trial at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, 13 of the 23 patients with Parkinson's disease who received transplants of aborted foetal tissue developed severe and uncontrollable movements. It is reported that the results of the trial will come as a major disappointment to proponents and donors of such research, such as the actor Michael J Fox.

USA - The new Republican majority leader of the US Senate has announced that up to five anti-abortion bills will be put before Congress before the end of next year. Senator Trent Lott said that the measures would include a ban on partial-birth abortions, a law granting legal status to unborn children and a law making it a crime to assist a minor to have an abortion without the knowledge of the minor's parents.

ITALY - The Catholic Church is to publish a 1000-page dictionary which will expose euphemisms used by advocates of abortion to conceal their aims. The Pontifical Council for the Family will next year issue the Italian language Lexicon of the Family which will, for example, show how "voluntary interruption of pregnancy" is used to mean abortion. Cardinal Alfonso Ltftpez Trujillo, head of the council, said that language used about women, children and families in the United Nations and national parliaments was "almost Orwellian".

IRELAND - The pro-abortion Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) has launched an attack on the pro-life policies of Dana Rosemary Scallon, a prominent Irish member of the European parliament. Catherine Heany, a spokesman for IFPA, said that Dana's campaign against EU funding of reproductive health programmes [which include the provision of abortion] in developing countries was putting the lives of women and children at risk and must not succeed. Ms Heany said that the US decision to withhold $34 million in aid for such programmes had been "disastrous", and claimed that the money could have prevented about 5,000 maternal deaths, 77,000 infant and child deaths, and two million unwanted pregnancies.

A spokesman for SPUC said: "Ms Heany's wild, exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims appear to have spiralled out of control. They are not only absurd but also completely out of place because other countries have made up for the US funding." IFPA is an affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the world's largest abortion promoter.

NAMIBIA - The government of Namibia has ruled out liberalising abortion law for at least the next 10 years. Dr Libertina Amathila, the Namibian health minister, appeared to support legalised abortion, but said that pressure from religious groups meant that the people would not accept it. A law dating from 1975 outlaws abortion in Namibia in most cases, although there are a number of exceptions. A draft law to liberalise the law further was proposed in 1996, but was shelved three years later in the face of vigorous pro-life campaigning.

PHILIPPINES - A Catholic priest in the Philippines has won both praise and condemnation for his refusal to give communion to women who are using abortifacient intrauterine devices (IUDs). Fr Joseph Schwegmann insisted that women had the devices removed before they could be readmitted to communion, and at least 24 women have heeded him. While the pro-abortion Population Commission condemned the priest's stand, the Vicar General of his Diocese praised him and insisted that the use of IUDs was a grave sin.

The IUD - also known as the coil - is thought to work by preventing the implantation of a newly conceived embryo in the lining of his or her mother's womb. This means that it causes an abortion. Intentionally procuring an abortion results in automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church pending repentance and absolution.

from Leafiest November 2002

UGANDA - The teenage pregnancy rate in Uganda has dropped from 45% in 1995 to 31% this year, according to a report prepared by the Ugandan health ministry. The decrease has happened without the promotion of abortion, which remains illegal in most cases. The news appears to contradict the views of a number of South African MPs who urged Uganda last week to legalise abortion because of high rates of sexual abuse and moral degeneration in the country.

from Xinhua News Agency November 2002.

USA - Two opinion polls in the US have indicated the existence of a growing generation gap on the issue of abortion, with younger people being far more likely to oppose abortion than their parents or grandparents. In a Zogby poll, one third of respondents aged between 18 and 29 believed that abortion should never be legal, compared to 23% of those aged 30 to 64 and 20% of those aged over 65. A similar poll conducted by the University of California, Berkeley, found that people aged between 15 and 26 were about 10 percentage points more likely than older people to support restrictions on abortion.

from Yahoo! News November 2002.

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