More of the same

Last Monday Declan wrote to the head of the Catholic Church in Britain, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, in his capacity as the Archbishop of the Diocese of Westminster, regarding the Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre (the email letter is presented in the previous blog). The Archbishop's House hasn't acknowledged receipt of the letter yet, but meanwhile we are dealing with more of the same – only yesterday afternoon, while Declan was at his pitch selling the Big Issue (a magazine sold by homeless people on registered street pitches), another Big Issue vendor was doing the same no more than five metres from the pitch; Declan had to lodge a complaint with head office. A guy that frequently sits beside Declan while he is in the internet café and plays chess online, on Thursday afternoon did the same with me in the Idea Store Whitechapel while I was working away. I don't have to be reminded of what this seeks to communicate: that we should forget about civil liberties and give up the fight; that whatever move we make will be counteracted one way or another. It would appear this is the case.

Take washing: we were barred from the Methodist Church Whitechapel Mission due to concerns about our safety – no, no kidding; recently we were more or less barred from the public toilets in Liverpool Street Station; and when Declan was reduced to washing in the Dellow men's washroom, he was so hassled by the homeless while in there he now washes and shaves in parks. Take Declan's petition to the UN in support of research cloning of embryos and stem cells: on 29 January the Tower Hamlets Council's Idea Store Whitechapel imposed a 3-hour limit on computer use on both our membership cards; when we were still able to do our work in comes SpamCop's report accusing Declan of spamming; currently it is impossible, from the Idea Store Whitechapel, to access Declan's draft mail box, where Google Mail keeps any saved document (no such problem in an internet café or with my Google Mail account) – on 26 January Declan's Google Mail was raided and 300 draft documents, which included the names and email addresses of over 2,500 scientists, were deleted for good. As for the porch we sleep in: it is hardly used by anybody (see blog of 26 March "We are seeking to raise £4,000") and yet on 22 February two police officers came to tell us they had an order to evict us; and since mid-April the cleaner that from January had been going in and out through the porch door every weekday morning between 5.00am and 5.30am, is now going in at 4.00am - yesterday morning at 5.15am (we get up at 4.30am), while Declan was off putting away our cardboard, this cleaner came out with a mop; I hardly had the time to step down to the pavement, our packed bags still in the porch. (It is a pity he wasn't there later in the evening to mop the beer somebody had spilled on the porch floor.)

Apart from being well motivated, the homeless that target Declan don’t seem to have much else in common – we are just a couple in their mid-forties who keep themselves to themselves; I spend most of my time in the library, while Declan spends most of his walking everywhere, in particular for food. The guy that is so fond of shouting at us, be it in the Dellow or in the Manna Centre (whose building is provided rent-free by the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark), for example that I am going to be sorted out or found one morning with a knife in my back, is a resident of the local Salvation Army hostel. The guy that regularly appears out of nowhere and shouts at us that we are “f***ing rats” and “c**ts” helps out in one of the local markets. The big Pole that booted Declan hard in the calf while in the Manna three weeks ago has little or no English. The guy that almost assaulted Declan in the Dellow men's washroom on 1 April probably doesn’t count: he could have interpreted the staff member’s words "What are you going to do about it?" as a carte blanche to continue (see blog “Declan narrowly escapes being assaulted”). The two homeless who on Tuesday afternoon – the day after Declan emailed Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor – began shouting in the courtyard of the Manna about this 46-year-old guy (yeah, Declan’s age) who is going to be put on a drip, Declan had never seen before.

Colony of embryonic stem cells

The April issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell has published the finding of researchers at Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering that has uncovered the molecular underpinnings of one of the earliest steps in human development using human embryonic stem cells. One reason for the excitement, they say, is that the system can provide a research model to study very early human development, including the formation of placenta which develops from the same early embryo. It is virtually impossible, the investigators say, to use anything other than human embryonic stem cells to gather information of this kind. "The finding was serendipitous and at the same time a very important addition to our understanding of early human development," says Dr Linzhao Cheng, an associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics and co-director of the stem cell program at Johns Hopkins. "This is one area of stem cell biology where human and mouse differ significantly and we never would have discovered this if we had limited our studies to using only mouse embryonic stem cells. Adult human stem cells just didn't work for this."

Another important breakthrough is published in the 23 April advanced online issue of the journal Nature. An international research team, led by a Canadian stem-cell scientist, has successfully turned human embryonic stem cells into three types of heart cells. The breakthrough, said Dr Gordon Keller, director of the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine at University Health Network in Toronto, marks a significant step towards the test-tube creation of functioning heart tissue and in the future could lead to new strategies for repairing damaged hearts following a heart attack. Though it is not the first time heart cells have been made from embryonic stem cells, it is the first time scientists have been able to find the right "recipe" to direct stem cells to produce only the progenitor heart cells which are able to make three major types of cell essential for a healthy heart.

These two important discoveries, I am afraid, didn’t make it into the website of the religious organisation “DoNoHarm: The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics” (a website which comes recommended by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops). In fact, spend twenty minutes browsing through its pages and you would be forgiven for thinking that adult stem cells and human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have delivered the knock-out blow to human embryonic stem cells – Alan Trounson, head of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine in San Francisco, who recently told Nature Reports Stem Cells that "excessive" media attention on iPS cell research could "separate science from reality", won’t appear in the DoNoHarm website either. (Created from adults cells by a simple genetic trick, iPS cells seem to have regained an embryonic ‘stemness’ that might allow them to become any type of cell in the body. Members of the International Stem Cell Forum (ISCF) meeting on 28 February in San Francisco issued the following statement: “The ISCF supports stem cell research using both human embryonic and adult stem cells. The Forum also recognises that the demonstration of human induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells opens up an exciting area of stem cell research. The technology is at a very early stage however and many questions remain unanswered such as the functional relationship of iPS cells to human embryonic stem cells, both of which are important to moving the entire field of stem cell research toward application and clinical therapies.”)

Stanton Gerson, director of the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine in Cleveland, commenting on Ohio's Ban on Human Cloning SB 174 (which has yet to clear a Senate committee after introduction last year) said: ''I find it unwise to suggest that the Legislature should dictate appropriate scientific discovery''. Perhaps the same should apply to religious groups.

Letter to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor

Yesterday afternoon Declan wrote to the Archbishop of the Diocese of Westminster regarding the Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre (see previous blog). Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor is also the head of the Catholic Church in Britain (the email letter is presented below). This morning Declan was informed in the Dellow Centre – by the same homeless that on 11 April, while in the Manna Centre, more or less told me I would be found one morning with a knife in my back – that I am going to be “sorted out”. So it seems I don’t have much time left. Oh, well.

On 2 April professor of philosophy AC Grayling, one of Britain’s foremost public intellectuals, wrote an article in the Guardian titled “Sin of omission: Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor's attack on secularism is based on a heavily edited history of Christianity”. The previous day the Cardinal had claimed that "Judaeo-Christian heritage" was the only thing binding British society together, on the eve of a lecture series on the place of faith in British public life. (Incidentally, on 2 April the Guardian asked Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor if he thought that Christian faith leaders should have a privileged position when it came to making interventions in public policy. “Yes,” he replied, “I don't see why not.") Grayling’s article goes so well here, I cannot but publish the first three paragraphs:

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor's remarks attacking "aggressive secularism" and claiming that "what binds the British people together is their Judaeo-Christian heritage" body forth several major acts of selective amnesia.

First as to "aggression". The cardinal chooses to forget that when the church was in a position to be aggressive towards those who disagreed with it, it did not restrict itself to robust and uncompromising language, as today's secularists do, but committed murder by burning its opponents at the stake, often torturing them beforehand. That was genuine "aggression"; using this word to describe the forthright and sometimes scornful language of those who disagree with his outlook (and what he tries to do with it, like blocking medical advances for the suffering) is a sort of running to mother, thumb in mouth.

Secondly as to "secularism". The cardinal chooses to forget or ignore that progress towards contemporary liberal democracy, pluralism, civil liberties, individual autonomy and the rule of secular law was achieved only once the hegemony of the church over minds and bodies was broken, and in spite of it. The church fought hard, long and bloodily to abort the beginnings of secularism in the 16th and 17th centuries, as it also then sought to stop the rise of science, and throughout the history of the growth of literacy it attempted to limit the spread of more general knowledge and awareness by placing almost every book of value on the index of forbidden books.

This is Declan’s email letter to Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor (Abhreception@rcdow.org.uk):

Subject: Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre

Dear Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor

I am writing to you in your capacity as Archbishop of the Diocese of Westminster, of which Tower Hamlets is part. As you are aware, the Dellow Centre of the Sister of Mercy Providence Row Charity is a day centre in Tower Hamlets that provides, among other services, free breakfast, showers and clothing for vulnerable people in the City of London and the East End – the charity's Annual Review 2006-2007 cites the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London Councils and The Corporation of London as statutory funders, as well as 28 churches among a long list of supporters.

My name is Declan Heavey. I am the director of Network of those Abused by Church (NAC), an international secular humanist organisation which my wife and I launched on the internet after moving from Dublin to Birmingham in 2003. Although NAC has yet to be registered as a company, it has a distinguished list of 13 international (agreed) trustees and 32 honorary associates – I regret that I cannot provide you with a link to the NAC website as it was suspended on 8 March after SpamCop drew up a report on 6 March stating that emails from me to scientists and academics, inviting them to sign my petition to the United Nations in support of work on therapeutic cloning and the use of stem cells for research and for the treatment of disease, was spamming. (My wife and I are in the process of trying to raise £4,000 to run a campaign in support of the petition, which since 22 October has been signed by 512 scientists and academics, including 22 Nobel laureates.)

Having had to go on state benefits in July 2005, the Department for Work and Pensions ceased our allowance entitlement on 27 September 2006 because I did not “sign on” two days before I was due to do so on 29 September. Consequently, my wife and I have been sleeping rough in a porch in the City of London since 3 November 2006. My case is currently before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. In December I received (c/o the Dellow Centre) a letter for and on behalf of the Registrar turning down my request of 8 September for priority, but informing me that the Court would examine my application, also of 8 September, possibly before the end of January. I have yet to learn if my case has been dismissed or if the Court has invited the Government to set out its observations on the merits and admissibility of my case.

I wish to draw to your attention that since 10 April I have been washing and shaving on the streets as a result of all the harassment and threats I have received from other homeless while attempting to wash in the Dellow Centre’s men's washroom. For example: (1) on Friday, I had to leave the washroom as a homeless was shouting loudly and menacingly at me because I grabbed an empty chair, and (2) on 1 April, I narrowly escaped assault in the washroom, having had to twice call staff.

My wife and I are especially concerned that we could be barred from the Dellow Centre through no fault of our own – the breakfast provided by the centre is the only food available to my wife for the entire day; whilst I daily walk a round trip of two hours to the Manna Centre (whose building is provided rent-free by the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark) to avail of the free lunch provided to homeless people. I beg to point out that on 18 June we were barred from the Methodist Church Whitechapel Mission by the minister's wife due to concerns about our safety following an unprovoked assault on my wife by a homeless woman in the canteen of the premises. Despite that the Whitechapel Mission 130th Anniversary Review states that homeless people are not be barred or excluded, and that I wrote by registered post to the minister himself and to the head of the Methodist Church in the UK, Rev Graham Carter, my wife and I were never readmitted.

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey

Barred from the Dellow Centre?

We think that this morning could have seen us barred from the Catholic Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre, the place where we sometimes shower and eat breakfast every weekday – the only food available to me for the entire day (see previous blog). Despite six tables being available in the canteen – the place had just opened – the homeless that on Sunday, while in the Manna Centre, more or less told me I would be found one morning with a knife in my back decides to sit with me. He throws his newspaper on the table with such force it lands on the chair beside me and then proceeds to open it on top of mine; I had to move to another table. And when Declan goes for a shower – he is now washing and shaving in the street as a result of all the hassle from homeless while attempting to wash in the men's washroom, see blog of 10 April “Washing in the street” – a homeless takes offence that he grabbed a chair and begins shouting loudly at him (the word f**k and its variations got repeated quite a few times). Yet no member of staff came in, despite that one of the nuns is normally attending to the two washing machines in the next room. Needless to say, Declan left the washroom as quickly as he could and we left the premises.

We are wary of this morning, understandably I think, because this is exactly how we got ourselves barred from the Methodist Church Whitechapel Mission last June (the place we had been washing since we were forced to become rough sleepers on 3 November 2006): the day we got barred by the minister’s wife due to concerns about our safety, I was assaulted by a homeless woman out of the blue in the canteen. And although Declan wrote by registered post to the minister himself and to the head of the Methodist Church in the UK, Rev Graham Carter, we were never readmitted. (Oh, and we still can’t access our drafts in Google Mail while in the Tower Hamlets Council Idea Store Whitechapel (they are accessible in the internet café), which is unfortunate since all our emailing to try and raise £4,000 for our campaign to support Declan’s petition to the UN is done from there and I now have to go to greater pains to do the work. We are beginning to wonder if the European Court of Human Rights might have invited the Government to set out its observations on the merits and admissibility of our case - Declan received a letter from the Registrar in December turning down his request of 8 September for priority, but informing him that the Court would examine his application, also of 8 September, possibly before the end of January.)


Pope Benedict XVI and bishops at the Basilica of the National
Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington 16 April

On Wednesday, the second day of his six-day US tour, Pope Benedict XVI visited the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in northeast Washington to speak directly to some 300 bishops and nine cardinals of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He began by praising America's religious vitality and quickly turned to warning against the dangers of an ideology that he said threatens to reduce faith to a strictly private matter: secularism. "Is it," he asked, "consistent to profess our beliefs in church on Sunday, and then during the week to promote business practices or medical procedures contrary to those beliefs? Is it consistent for practicing Catholics to ignore or exploit the poor and the marginalized, to promote sexual behavior contrary to Catholic moral teaching, or to adopt positions that contradict the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death?" How such remarks will be taken by the bishops remains to be seen, but some observers saw them as strong encouragement to requiring stronger fidelity to Catholic principles among those citizens who claim to be Catholic, including politicians.

Cardinal Justin Rigali, archbishop of Philadelphia and chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities, doesn't need words of encouragement. On 6 June, the day before the US House of Representatives voted in support of S5, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, Rigali urged all House members to reject the "misguided and unethical legislation”, adding: "Ethically sound research using non-embryonic stem cells has continued to advance, helping patients with over 70 conditions in clinical trials." He clearly disregarded a letter of 4 April 2007 from the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) - the primary international organisation of scientific, ethical, and clinical researchers in the field of stem cell biology – to all Senate members when S5 had been before the Senate. The ISSCR, which strongly supported S5 and believed this was the only bill before the US Congress that would accelerate research dedicated to finding better therapies for patients suffering from a variety of diseases, stated:

Passage of S5 would ensure that scientists in the United States can use Federal grant funds to study the many valuable human embryonic stem cell lines that have been developed since August 9, 2001, the date that President Bush announced his stem cell research policy ... You might hear during the debate about a list of 72 conditions that can supposedly be treated with adult stem cells. We urge you to question the validity of these claims. While adult stem cell therapies are powerful, they are not as wide-ranging as claimed. The range of diseases effectively treated with adult stem cells is still extremely restricted, largely limited to blood disorders and specific cancers. A vote for S5 will ensure that all avenues of stem cell research are adequately explored.

Rigali must not have been happy when S5 was passed by the House on 7 June by a vote of 247-176 (the US Senate had passed the legislation on 11 April 63-34). But his spirits certainly lifted when the legislation was vetoed by President Bush on 20 June: in a statement made the same day he criticized US congressional embryonic stem-cell advocates for "tragically" dismissing the medical advances made using adult stem cells. “I commend President Bush today for vetoing S5, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act,” the cardinal said. “This bill would not actually enhance stem cell research, but divert federal funds away from legitimate research toward avenues requiring the destruction of innocent human life.” He added: “The cause of science is not enhanced but diminished when it loses its moral compass.”

Pope visits the US

As I reported in the previous blog, Declan was getting so much hassle from the homeless in the Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre men's washroom that he began washing and shaving in the street – alas, this morning it was raining and he couldn’t shave in the park as usual, so instead we had to walk to the Thames River via the Tower of London. Some homeless must be quite motivated because yesterday afternoon one of the regulars at the Dellow passed by Declan as he was at his pitch on Liverpool Street attempting to sell The Big Issue – a magazine sold by homeless people on registered street pitches – and shouted at him: “F***ing c**t”. And the day before, while in the Dellow, another homeless came from behind Declan singing “there will be blood on the street”. (On Sunday morning it was my turn: while in the Manna Centre, a homeless close by shouted I would be found one morning with a knife in my back. Speaking of the Manna (whose building is provided rent-free by the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark): yesterday afternoon, after Declan had walked for an hour with his bags to get a lunch, a worker served him one spoon of bolognese meat while the homeless around him walked away with two helpings.)

Food at the Dellow continues to be scarce (along with everything else, see blog of 14 March “SpamCop reports Declan as a spammer”), although today the homeless got a small bowl of pasta and some fruit cocktail with custard. The Centre only provides food in the morning and that is what I eat for the entire day: a maximum of four Weetabix, a maximum of three toasts and a grated cheese sandwich – from which the grated cheese is sometimes removed – that the nuns in the kitchen give the homeless "for later". I am almost a size 8 now. (Oh, as from this morning, we can’t access Drafts in Google Mail – on 26 January all emails sent to Declan after 12 August 2007 were moved to the Trash and 300 draft documents, which included the names and email addresses of over 2,500 scientists, were deleted for good; and as for the porch we sleep in: as from yesterday, the cleaner that since January had been going in and out through the porch door every weekday morning between 5.00am and 5.30am, is now going in at 4.00am – blog of 26 March “We are seeking to raise £4,000” has some of the problems we have been experiencing of late.)

Pope Benedict XVI arrived for his first visit in the United States yesterday with the country consumed by a heated presidential election campaign. The Los Angeles Times has stated that "political parties courting Roman Catholic votes may seek to take advantage of the publicity surrounding his words and actions", while The New York Times writes that the Democratic campaigns of Sens Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have hired Catholic outreach directors, deployed an army of prominent Catholic surrogates testifying on their behalf and created mailings that highlight their commitment to Catholic social teachings on economic justice and the common good.

The LA Times has also stated that “Benedict is not expected to overtly speak of the campaign or US politics” but perhaps this is because his positions on burning social issues facing Americans are already well-known. Take embryo research. On 31 January Reuters reported that, during an address to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Pope Benedict stated that embryonic stem cell research (among others practices) had "shattered" human dignity and that the Church had a duty to defend the "great values at stake" in the field of bioethics - US Cardinal William Levada, Benedict's successor as head of the doctrinal department, said the CDF was mulling the possibility of preparing a new Vatican document on bioethical issues. The Pope also dismissed criticism that the Roman Catholic Church blocks scientific progress.

However, Professor Sir Martin Evans, who received the Nobel Prize for medicine last year, has hit back at opponents of embryo research. In a BBC article of 11 April, Professor Evans rejects recent criticism from the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who described the creation of animal-human hybrid embryos as unethical and immoral - Prime Minister Gordon Brown was forced last month to give Labour MPs a free vote on the Government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which has faced condemnation from Catholic Church leaders (the bill, to be debated in the House of Commons in May, is designed to bring the 1990 regulatory framework for fertility treatment and embryo research in line with scientific advances).

Professor Evans urged MPs voting on embryo research legislation to "stop listening to the emotive arguments of religiously motivated pressure groups". He added:

Please look at the evidence. Don't immediately go for the knee-jerk reaction mainly powered by the 'yuck' factor. I think the point of debate really is: are the embryos that are being used for research fully-formed humans? To me and to many other scientists - knowing that these are just a small bunch of cells - the answer is no.

On 9 April the world's leading researchers in stem cells gathered in Edinburgh to spread the message that experts must be allowed to continue to study stem cells in their many forms to push the science towards the ultimate goal: new treatments for those suffering serious disease. The UK National Stem Cell Network steering committee, which organised the three-day conference, stated the following in a press release on 31 March:

Medical researchers need to be able to derive embryonic stem cells – from both human embryos and human admixed, or ‘hybrid’, embryos in order to fully understand pluripotency. Only by understanding how pluripotent stem cells have the capability to become any cell in the human body will scientists be able to develop therapies for currently incurable degenerative diseases. The UKNSCN is calling for MPs to enshrine tight regulations in the HFE Bill but to ensure that all types of derivation remain open to researchers. Although some recent research suggests that the reprogramming of adult cells could be an effective way of producing pluripotent stem cells, this work is in its infancy and will still require benchmarking against human embryonic cells.

Washing in the street

All this week Declan has been walking for almost five hours with his bags. A round walk of over two hours to the Manna Centre to get some free lunch – where last Saturday, a big homeless Pole booted him hard in the calf. Then two or three times to his Big Issue pitch where he attempts to sell a couple of Big Issues (a magazine sold by homeless people) – on Tuesday afternoon he shouldn’t have bothered: the Big Issue vendor he found on his pitch informed him he was working on it. And he also meets me in the Idea Store Whitechapel library – the same place we regularly run into difficulties with internet access (see previous blog for Declan’s email to the Leader of Tower Hamlets Council). It is quite exhausting for him but it has kept us in the game.

In my blog of 26 March “We are seeking to raise £4,000” I wrote that on 17 March Network Rail effectively barred us from the public toilets in Liverpool Street Station (we had been forced to wash there after we were barred in June from the Methodist Church-run Whitechapel Mission due to concerns about our safety), and that Declan would have to further bullfight the homeless in the men's washroom of the Sister of Mercy-run Dellow Centre. Well, he is getting so much hassle there that this morning he had to shave in a park – last week he experienced serious harassment from one homeless and had to inform staff that he was on the verge of calling the police, and two days ago another homeless was shouting so loud while shadow boxing and kicking about the place that twice staff had to put in an appearance.


Human-animal embryos have caused controversy in the UK

The Christian Legal Centre (CLC) and Comment on Reproductive Ethics (Core) launched a legal challenge yesterday against the legality of licences granted by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) that allowed the creation of Britain’s first human-animal hybrid embryo. It wants the licences granted to scientists at Newcastle University and King’s College London to be revoked so that no further experimentation is carried out. They made the move after Prime Minister Gordon Brown was forced last month to give Labour MPs a free vote on the Government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill (legislation currently going through Parliament), which has faced condemnation from Catholic Church leaders. According to Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, the bill would lead to the endorsement of experiments of "Frankenstein proportions".

(Cardinal O'Brien doesn’t mind to disagree with many eminent scientists, including Lord Naren Patel of Dunkeld, chairman of the UK National Stem Cell Network and chancellor of Dundee University, who has said that the legislation would improve regulation of research that could help diabetics and those with Parkinson’s. He probably wasn’t impressed either with the headline on the front page of today’s Times “Scientists win public support on embryo research”: a poll for the newspaper reveals that the creation of human-animal embryos enjoys broad public approval, with 50 per cent backing new laws that would permit it and only 30 per cent opposed.)

Unlike Gordon Brown, President George W Bush scored points with the Christian Right in his final State of the Union address on 28 January. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (FRC) stated: “A high mark came when the President explained how advances in science have made embryonic stem cell research obsolete and then called on Congress to pass a comprehensive cloning ban, ensuring as he put it, ‘that all life is treated with the dignity it deserves’.” Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the US bishops' Office of Pro-Life Activities: "We certainly welcome the president's emphasis on increased funding for ethical stem-cell research, and we agree that passage of a ban on human cloning is long overdue." In response to the speech, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (established in 2004 with the passage of Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act) promptly disagreed with President Bush’s stance: “Tonight, in his State of the Union address, President Bush distorted the scientific facts on stem cell research and did a disservice to the millions of patients suffering from chronic disease and injury for whom stem cell research holds great promise for future therapies and cures.”

Declan narrowly escapes being assaulted

Last Tuesday Declan narrowly escaped being assaulted by a homeless in the men's washroom of the Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre. Declan is at his sink when this guy begins harassing him, out of the blue, eventually making physical contact. Declan quickly dresses and from the door calls to the receptionist to bring in a male member of staff. "I want this guy to say good morning and he is ignoring me", this homeless tells the worker. And he must have interpreted the worker's response: "What are you going to do about it?", as a carte blanche to continue - when the worker is gone, Declan is a rat, a c**t, a f**ker, etc. This guy is so emboldened, Declan has to again call out to the receptionist to enquire if perhaps he needs to phone 999 and bring the police in. The prospect of sitting at a breakfast table in the canteen didn't exactly fill Declan with cheer and we left – he was pretty hungry that day.

Declan has always showered in the Dellow but since we were effectively barred from the public toilets in Liverpool Street Station on 17 March (see previous blog), he has been left with no option other than to shave and do his teeth in the centre too. Prior to Liverpool Street Station, we were washing in the Methodist Church-run Whitechapel Mission but were also barred from there on 18 June by the minister's wife due to concerns about our safety – in the Mission's 130th Anniversary Review, which is published on their website, it states: "We will not bar you or exclude you. If your behaviour is not acceptable you will be asked to leave, but will be welcome back the next day"; yet we were not re-admitted, despite Declan writing by registered post to the minister himself and to the head of the Methodist Church in the UK, Rev Graham Carter.

Declan’s encounters with the homeless didn't end in the Dellow Centre though. Yesterday evening a homeless walked along with Declan as he was making his way to meet me, shouting at him that he was "a f**king Irish c**t" and that he should go back to where he came from. This morning, while eating at the Manna Centre (whose building is provided rent-free by the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark), a big homeless Pole booted him hard in the calf – the Manna is the same place I mentioned in the previous blog, where we went over the Easter holiday; it is a round walk of well over two hours, but Declan now goes there every weekday afternoon to get something to eat.

A place we regularly run into difficulties is the Tower Hamlets Council's Idea Store Whitechapel, where we do all our emailing. It is bad enough that on 29 January the library imposed a 3-hour limit on computer use on both our membership cards – a look at both our reservation bookings for, say, December and January would show that we frequently had one or two extra hours of computer time. (I should perhaps add that I foresaw a turn for the worse in my blog of 20 January "Begging for over a week".) Things got substantially worse at the end of last week and on Friday Declan had to again write to the Head of Tower Hamlets Council, Councillor Denise Jones (the email is presented below). Oh, and despite Declan's complaint, twice on Sunday I had to complain to a member of staff that I couldn't log in to my booked computer because my name didn't appear on the monitor.

Needless to say, the vast majority of our emails to scientists and academics continue to be flagged as spam (see blog of 14 March "SpamCop reports Declan as a spammer"). I actually feel lucky if, after emailing for over four hours a conservative number of 350 scientists and academics, two sign Declan’s petition. (I know the number of emails sent on any day because not only does Declan keep a detailed account of such things in his spreadsheet, which now contains 5,190 names and email addresses, but Google Mail keeps a record of every email sent.) On Wednesday two scientists signed the petition and it has little credibility that only two would be interested in adding their name to 509 signatories when, for example, on 7 December, a Friday, nine added their name when the petition only had 29 signatories; and on 9 December, a Sunday, eight did so.

I haven't been arrested for begging in the train station yet and we are still sleeping in the same porch: in relation to the former, the last time I was issued with a ticket, on 26 February, PC 9191 referred to me as "a piece of shit" who should be put away before his partner informed me that I would be arrested if I came back; and, in relation to the latter, on 22 February two police officers visited us at the porch to tell us that they had an order to evict us – despite that you wouldn't need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out the porch is hardly used by anybody.

The British press erupted on Tuesday with news that a team based at Newcastle University’s Institute of Human Genetics
produced the UK’s first human-animal hybrid embryo. The team, led by Dr Lyle Armstrong (a signatory of Declan’s petition), produced the embryo by inserting human DNA from a skin cell into a hollowed-out cow egg. An electric shock then induced the hybrid embryo to grow. The embryo, 99.9% human and 0.1% other animal, grew for three days, until it had 32 cells. (Professors John Burn, head of the Institute of Human Genetics, and Tom Strachan, scientific director of the Institute, have also added their name to the petition).

The news came days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown was forced to give Labour MPs a free vote on the Government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill (see previous blog), which has faced condemnation from Catholic bishops. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, used his Easter homily to denounce what he called experiments of "Frankenstein proportions" and called the bill a "monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life".

Interestingly, the front-page of the Jewish Chronicle on 28 March carried the headline “Rabbis back embryo bill as a life-saver” after Jewish leaders across the religious spectrum united in their support of the bill. Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain of Maidenhead Synagogue said:

The creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for medical research is not to be condemned as ‘Frankenstein science’, but welcomed as a life-saving development that uses our God-given skills in the noblest of causes. It is irresponsible to hold back the progress that could benefit so many lives. The Cardinal is accusing scientists of creating monsters, but maybe it is even more monstrous to obstruct possible cures.”

The former chair of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, Baroness Deech, also lent her full support to the bill. She described Cardinal O’Brien’s comments as “ill-informed and histrionic”, adding: “His comments are dangerous in terms of hindering future research.”

Meanwhile Tony Blair delivered his first major speech on religion at Westminster Cathedral on Thursday night, telling an audience of about 1,600 people that “we ignore the power of religion at our peril". (Blair, who has accepted a teaching post on the subject of faith and globalisation at Yale University, also set out plans for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.) These words must surely ring true for Gordon Brown.

For the record, this is Declan’s email of 28 March to Cllr Jones, to which he has yet to receive a response:

Subject: Idea Store Whitechapel

Dear Cllr Jones

I refer further to the attached copy of my recent correspondence with Mr Ian McNicol, Head of Idea Stores, to whom you referred my original complaint of 21 January regarding Idea Store Whitechapel and the repeated loss of computer bookings and internet access on both my wife's card (card no. D000350314) and my card (card no. D000355837) since 14 November 2007.

In the continued absence of a response from Mr McNichol in respect of my original complaint to you of 21 January, I wish to confirm that from 12.30pm to 1.50pm this afternoon on computer 8 in Idea Store Whitechapel, and as reported to a member of staff, my wife had problems accessing the internet; for example, she had to wait from 12.53pm to 1.05pm for two pages to load. The member of staff informed her that no other person had reported difficulties accessing the internet.

I also reconfirm (1) my wife experienced similar difficulties yesterday from 4.20pm to 6.00pm, (2) on 11 February a member of staff had to move me from one computer to another because it was not possible for me to access the internet (no other computer user reported any such difficulty), (3) on 10 February my wife lost her booking to another customer and had to spend 10 minutes dealing with a member of staff before the computer was re-booked in her name, and (4) on 1 February I received an email from Mr Sergio Dogliani, Principal Idea Store Manager, advising that the restriction by Idea Store Whitechapel of my wife and I to a 3-hour maximum computer use per day as from 29 January was irretractable, despite that for several months previous both my wife and I had been given extra hours of computer use, subject to computer availability.

As I explained in my original complaint of 21 January, since 22 October 2007 my wife and I have been using as much of our computer time in Idea Store Whitechapel as we can to contact distinguished scientists and academics to invite them to sign my petition to the United Nations in support of work on therapeutic cloning and the use of stem cells for research and for the treatment of disease. To date, this petition has been signed by 504 scientists and academics, including 22 Nobel laureates.

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey