Church and State blog: Obama: Yes to stem cells, funding

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Obama: Yes to stem cells, funding

Declan was told by a scientist on Tuesday that he hadn't received any email with the subject "NAC: Petition to the UN on Therapeutic Cloning", not even in his spam box – Declan usually makes three or four random calls, although normally all he gets are voice mails. So it seems that a spam box is too good for Declan's email: scientists and academics can spot it among the junk and decide to sign the petition. It might explain why there were no signatures yesterday despite me emailing 105 scientists; the day before I emailed 139.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama

If elected President of the United States in November, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says he will lift the Bush administration's ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created after 9 August 2001, and ensure that all research on stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous oversight. Obama recently answered a fourteen-part questionnaire posed to him and Republican presidential candidate John McCain by the grassroots group Science Debate 2008, which says it hopes to make key science issues a larger part of the election. McCain has said he will also answer the questions.

The questionnaire was a joint effort of Science Debate 2008, Scientists and Engineers for America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academies (the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine and National Research Council), the Council on Competitiveness and others, together representing more than 125 million voters. The questions dealt with a range of topics including genetics, stem cell research, scientific integrity, and research. "Most of America's major unsolved challenges revolve around these 14 questions," Shawn Otto, chief executive officer of Science Debate 2008, said in a statement. "To move America forward, the next president needs a substantive plan for tackling [the issues] going in, and voters deserve to know what that plan is."

Obama's answer to the question on embryonic stem cell research (Q: "Stem cell research advocates say it may successfully lead to treatments for many chronic diseases and injuries, saving lives, but opponents argue that using embryos as a source for stem cells destroys human life. What is your position on government regulation and funding of stem cell research?") is reproduced here:

Stem cell research holds the promise of improving our lives in at least three ways – by substituting normal cells for damaged cells to treat diabetes, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, heart failure and other disorders; by providing scientists with safe and convenient models of disease for drug development; and by helping to understand fundamental aspects of normal development and cell dysfunction.

For these reasons, I strongly support expanding research on stem cells. I believe that the restrictions that President Bush has placed on funding of human embryonic stem cell research have handcuffed our scientists and hindered our ability to compete with other nations. As president, I will lift the current administration's ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created after August 9, 2001 through executive order, and I will ensure that all research on stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous oversight.

I recognize that some people object to government support of research that requires cells to be harvested from human embryos. However, hundreds of thousands of embryos stored in the U.S. in in-vitro fertilization clinics will not be used for reproductive purposes, and will eventually be destroyed. I believe that it is ethical to use these extra embryos for research that could save lives when they are freely donated for that express purpose.

I am also aware that there have been suggestions that human stem cells of various types, derived from sources other than embryos, make the use of embryonic stem cells unnecessary. I don't agree. While adult stem cells, such as those harvested from blood or bone marrow, are already used for treatment of some diseases, they do not have the versatility of embryonic stem cells and cannot replace them. Recent discoveries indicate that adult skin cells can be reprogrammed to behave like stem cells; these are exciting findings that might in the future lead to an alternate source of highly versatile stem cells. However, embryonic stem cells remain the "gold standard," and studies of all types of stem cells should continue in parallel for the foreseeable future.

Rather than restrict the funding of such research, I favor responsible oversight of it, in accord with recent reports from the National Research Council. Recommendations from the NRC reports are already being followed by institutions that conduct human embryonic stem cell research with funds from a variety of sources. An expanded, federally-supported stem cell research program will encourage talented U.S. scientists to engage in this important new field, will allow more effective oversight, and will signal to other countries our commitment to compete in this exciting area of medical research.

A recent article in the News-Journal, titled "East Texans find success in stem cell treatments", quoted Kevin Wilson, director of public policy for The American Society for Cell Biology, as saying that US Food and Drug Administration officials are cautious about allocating research money toward embryonic stem cell research, and that the government is losing billions of dollars in research time and money by stalling on embryonic stem cell research. "The president's policy puts stem cell research in a time warp," Wilson said. "In Singapore, stem cell research accounts for about $5 billion of its economy, and the country has invested billions into the research as well. We must have the US policy overturned."

Besides the hotly contested presidential election, Michigan voters will vote in November on a ballot proposal that would loosen restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. Medical News Today reports that the official wording of the ballot measure says that it will expand use of human embryos for any research permitted under federal law subject to the following limits: the embryos are created for fertility treatment purposes; are not suitable for implantation or are in excess of clinical needs; would be discarded unless used for research; were donated by the person seeking fertility treatment; provide that stem cells cannot be taken from human embryos more than 14 days after cell division begins; prohibit any person from selling or purchasing human embryos for stem cell research; and prohibit state and local laws that prevent, restrict or discourage stem cell research, future therapies and cures. It also quotes Joe Schwarz, a physician and former Republican member of Congress who heads the Cure Michigan campaign, as saying: "What we are talking about here is providing cures for people, providing therapies for people. In this century, a majority of therapies and cures will be from genetic therapy and cellular therapy and not from popping chemical compounds, which is what we've done all our lives. So this is a movement forward."

Right now Michigan is one of only five states to ban the use of discarded embryos for medical research (the others: South Dakota, North Dakota, Louisiana and Arkansas), but not everyone wants to see things change. The Michigan Catholic Conference, which has joined the ballot question committee Michigan Citizens Against Unrestricted Science and Experimentation (MiCAUSE), states on their homepage that the proposal "would amend the state constitution to allow for unregulated, unrestricted embryo destruction in Michigan. The proposal also opens the door for human cloning to become legal in this state." In contrast, a letter of support for the ballot initiative to support embryonic stem cell research was issued only yesterday by the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), an independent, nonprofit organisation which represents over 2,600 leading stem cell researchers from around the world, stating: "The ethical safeguards proposed under Michigan's ballot initiative would provide an ethical framework within which important medical research could go forward."

Melvin Lester, Adjunct Professor of Medicine and President of Michigan Citizens for Stem Cell Research and Cures spoke at the House Judiciary Committee hearing in November 2007: "Do as you please. Don’t participate in embryonic stem cell research if it is against your better judgment, but please don’t tell us that the citizens of forty-five of our states that permit, endorse and support embryonic stem cell research are unethical, immoral and murderers. The majority of the citizens of Michigan like the majority of the citizens of the United States want this law rescinded."

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

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Thursday, September 04, 2008

Obama: Yes to stem cells, funding

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