Church and State blog: New York State

Saturday, January 24, 2009

New York State – Take action

This morning Declan thought it best if we left the Catholic Manna Centre at 9.00am, without even a bit to eat; only the third time we have done so since we learnt about the place back last Easter, and the second time in a week (see blog of 21 January “Violence and economic strangulation”). Declan continues to wash in the street, which he has been doing since 10 April last year as a result of all the harassment he has received from other homeless: see, for example, blog of 16 May 2008 “More racially aggravated harassment in the Dellow Centre”; or blog of 18 June 2008 “Declan robbed in the Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre”; or blog of 19 June 2008 “Declan assaulted in the Manna Centre”. Oh, and on 18 June 2007 we were barred from the Methodist Church Whitechapel Mission by the minister’s wife due to concerns about our safety, after I was assaulted in an unprovoked attack by a homeless woman in the canteen (see here). Declan has written on several occasions to the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, in his capacity as Archbishop of the Diocese of Westminster, to which the Dellow Centre belongs (see blog of 6 November 2008 “Letter to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor”).

With respect to the new NAC website in support of embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning (see blog of 19 January “NAC website launched”), this afternoon we finalised our Take action, which is part of New York State under Law and Policy in the USA. We are not the only ones aware that on Monday the ethics committee of New York’s Empire State Stem Cell Board will meet and consider whether payments to women who donate their eggs for stem cell research should be permitted: Jesse Reynolds of the Center for Genetics and Society, a nonprofit public policy organisation based in California, is against and has written an opinion in Newsday.

This is our Take action (Richard Daines is the New York State Health Commissioner and chairs the Empire State Stem Cell Board):

Dear Commissioner Daines

I understand that at the state level the issue of compensation of oocyte (egg) donors is arising in the deliberations of New York’s Empire State Stem Cell Board which was created legislatively in 2007 to provide state funding for stem cell research. In this letter, I urge you and the other members of the Empire State Stem Cell Board Ethics Committee to permit compensation to women who donate their eggs for stem cell research that seeks to use somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) - sometimes referred to as “therapeutic cloning” to distinguish it from reproductive cloning research - to produce embryonic stem cells.

There is no sound, persuasive ethical reasons why New York State funds should not be available to compensate egg donors. This view was endorsed at the Ethics Committee meeting of 22 February 2008 by Dr Henry Greely, who is the Deane F and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law at Stanford University and chairs the California Advisory Committee on Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research. He suggested New York should allow some compensation for gamete donation because it is not unethical for women to receive some compensation for their pain, suffering and time. However, he also recommended establishing some type of limit on the amount of compensation paid to donors.

On 27 June 2008, Dr Catherine Racowsky, Director of the Assisted Reproductive Technology Lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and an Associate Professor of reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School, presented information to the Ethics Committee on the risks of ovarian stimulation, surgical risks, psychological risks, cancer risks, and risks to future fertility. Committee members were advised that Dr Racowsky served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Assessing the Medical Risks of Human Oocyte Donation for Stem Cell Research (IOM Committee) that developed the report by the same name that was distributed to Board members in May.

Dr Racowsky concluded that with appropriate selection and careful monitoring of stimulation, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome should be preventable in all or almost all egg donors; that the anesthetic and surgery risks are very low; that there are potential psychological risks that can be addressed in most cases with appropriate counselling; and that most cancer studies are reassuring in not showing a strong association between fertility drug use and cancer rates, although some have shown increased risk with greater drug use or when patients have been followed over a longer period of time. In response to questions from Board members, Dr Racowsky stated that she thought egg donors should be compensated, but noted that how that is done is very tricky in light of the potential for undue inducement.

Moreover, Dr Carl Coleman, who is the Director of the Health, Law and Policy Program at Seton Hall Law School and was previously Counsel, and then Executive Director, to the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, suggested to the members of the Ethics Committee on 4 September 2008 that thinking of an egg donor as a research subject makes sense and that the compensation for research subjects and IVF donors often includes consideration of the time, inconvenience, and discomfort, and in some cases, the risk.

It is important to include in the ethical analysis the potential for good that can come from SCNT. The Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR) is the USA’s leading bipartisan pro-cures coalition. In a report released on 12 January 2009 entitled “A Catalyst for Cures: Embryonic Stem Cell Research”, CAMR states: “Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is another example of a technology with promise that has faced unexpected challenges. Oocyte availability, for example, has been problematic. Yet the challenges are worth overcoming. ‘SCNT is the only known procedure for completely and normally reprogramming a cell,’ says John Gearhart, University of Pennsylvania. Because SCNT is more efficient than iPS cell technology for reprogramming cells, and can be done without inserting new genes, continued studies of SCNT could help scientists find the linchpin to make reprogramming factors more efficient and effective. SCNT will also provide fundamental insights into how an egg reprograms that will teach a great deal about basic biology.”

Yours sincerely

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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Saturday, January 24, 2009

New York State – Take action

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