Church and State blog: Hunting medicine's holy grail

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Hunting medicine's holy grail

Since Monday I have emailed 402 scientists and academics inviting them to sign Declan's petition to the UN on research cloning of embryos and stem cells (last week it was one signature from 1,072 emails). As usual, the vast majority of the emails were dumped straight to spam boxes or to cyberspace (see blog of 4 September “Obama: Yes to stem cells, funding”) – probably cyberspace because yesterday I included bogus emails (for example, I added an extra “u” to “uk”) and none were returned as undelivered. It may explain why yesterday, out of a total of 173 emails, I only got five out-of-office autoreplies, and just one signatory. Never mind that 59 went to The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge and 64 to the University College London Medical School – we have several distinguished signatories from each. There is a pattern starting to emerge: signatories come from emails sent either immediately before or after an autoreply – such was the case with two out of the four signatories on Monday.

Spam is not the only difficulty. We also have problems with internet access and computer bookings in our local council’s flagship library, the Idea Store Whitechapel (see blog of 13 October “Letter to the Leader of Tower Hamlets Council”). Only yesterday there was almost no internet access for near on three hours; my booked computer automatically shut down and restarted six times (not even a member of staff could explain why); and in my third and final hour I couldn’t log in for fifteen minutes (this has been happening for some days now) – since 29 January, we have been restricted to a 3-hour maximum computer use per day on each of our membership cards, despite that for several months previous we were given “additional time” subject to computer availability in accordance with the council's then and current “Idea Stores PC Usage Policy”.

World-renowned biologist Alan Trounson, President of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (and an honorary associate of NAC), was a guest speaker at AusBiotech 2008, Australia’s biotechnology conference, which took place in Melbourne this week (26-29 October). He discussed worldwide optimism in respect of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research, pending human clinical trials and the potential of stem cell therapy. In his only interview while in Australia, he told the Sunday Herald Sun: “The world is incredibly optimistic about the use of stem cells, embryonic or other. There will be treatments, there will be cures. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel.” (The CIRM provides the world’s biggest source of funding for hESC research, with a budget of more than $3 billion.)

The stem cell pioneer said that hESC research was ready to prove its potential. “There have been tremendous clinical advances using human embryonic stem cell therapy,” Trounson said. “Things are moving very quickly.” He said scientists working with US biotech company Geron would begin human clinical trials within months following the success of testing the therapy on rats with injured spinal cords. It will be the first time hESC therapy has been tested on patients.

He said more human clinical trials were also imminent. They included testing the ability of hESCs to repair damage to the retina causing blindness (see blog of 26 August “Fighting for the Right to Clone”) and, within two years, overcoming diabetes by using the cells to mature into pancreas cells to produce insulin. “There is a myeloprolific condition that ends up multiplying red blood cells and becoming a preliminary to developing leukemia,” he said. “The scientists were able to block that using a human embryonic stem cell drug and it is now in early trials.”

Stem cell critics are now using the recent advances in adult stem cell research to forward a political agenda, says the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR). On 22 October, the ISSCR published an open letter in support of all forms of stem cell research, which has been signed by more than 375 of its members. From the introduction to the letter: “As scientists, we are concerned that efforts to favor one arm of stem cell research at the expense of another are based on unsound interpretations of scientific discoveries. Therefore, the ISSCR joined with other leading scientists to issue an open letter to reiterate the urgent need for support for all types of stem cell research, asking members to endorse this open letter.” From the letter (para 2):

Recent exciting advances in the reprogramming of cells in adult human tissues, to convert them into cells that resemble embryonic stem (ES) cells (induced pluripotent stem cells, iPS cells), or to redirect cell fate to enhance tissue repair, have captured the imagination of the scientific community worldwide. Many scientists are very optimistic about the future of this new research. Unfortunately, some in political circles have interpreted this enthusiasm as a verdict that research on human ES cells is no longer necessary. This conclusion is premature and is not scientifically justified.

Meanwhile, the Detroit News reported on Saturday that Michigan voters appear to have growing doubts about Proposal 2, the 4 November ballot proposal that would loosen restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in Michigan (see, for example, blog of 17 October “Stem Cell Research: Five Basic Things To Know”). In an emotional struggle, supporters and opponents have committed $10 million, according to campaign reports filed Friday. A new, Detroit News/WXYZ Action News poll shows the initiative, Proposal 2, leading by 46-43 percent – within the 5-point error margin. A month ago – before a saturation campaign of advertising paid in part by $2.79 million from the Michigan Catholic Conference – it was favoured 50 percent to 32 percent, reports the News. According to one pollster, when a ballot proposal has less than 50 percent support this close to Election Day, it usually is rejected because undecided voters typically vote against ballot proposals. (See here for a series of videos from the University of Michigan in support of hESC research.)

As I wrote in the previous blog, our campaign in support of hESC research and therapeutic cloning, also known as somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), has been greatly simplified; and that the serious threat to hESC research of the “non-material neuroscience” movement will be dealt with in “Embryonic stem cell research” under “Ethics”. Well, material in an article I have come across in the New York Times by Yale psychologist Paul Bloom (a signatory of Declan’s petition) will likely feature prominently in promulgating the view that the brain is no place to invoke the ‘God of the gaps’ (see blog of 23 October “Creationists declare war over the brain”). Bloom writes: “When people wonder about the moral status of animals or fetuses or stem cells, for instance, they often ask: Does it have a soul? If the answer is yes, then it is a precious individual, deserving of compassion and care.” He concludes by stating: “The great conflict between science and religion in the last century was over evolutionary biology. In this century, it will be over psychology, and the stakes are nothing less than our souls.”

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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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Hunting medicine's holy grail

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