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.