British lawmakers back human-animal embryo research

On Friday I emailed 228 scientists and academics inviting them to sign Declan's petition to the UN on research cloning of embryos and stem cells. And, as usual, the vast majority of the emails went straight to spam boxes (or to cyberspace, see blog of 4 September “Obama: Yes to stem cells, funding”). It didn't matter where I sent them – all I got was a total of six out-of-office autoreplies. Unsurprisingly, we didn’t get a single signature despite that, for example, 90 emails went to scientists in the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry, from where we have four signatories. In fact, from all the emails I sent on 17, 19, 20, 22 and 24 October (115, 132, 285, 312, and 228 respectively) – 1,072 in total – we have only had one signatory (see previous blog “Creationists declare war over the brain”).

UK Houses of Parliament

On Wednesday, the British lower house of parliament approved legislation allowing scientists to create human-animal “hybrid embryos” for medical research, “in the biggest shake-up of embryology laws in two decades”, reports the Agence France-Presse. (According to the Telegraph, hybrid embryos are known to have been created in America and China. Canada has recently voted to allow them, while India is currently considering the move.)

Despite opposition from religious and pro-life groups, MPs in the House of Commons backed the human embryology and fertilisation bill by 355 votes to 129. The wide-ranging bill, which has been debated for months (see, for example, blog of 20 May “UK parliament backs human-animal embryo research”) would also allow parents with a sick child to create a “saviour sibling” to be harvested for cells to cure their older brother or sister. It will now go to a vote in the House of Lords, and could be law by November.

Urging MPs to back all of the measures, Dawn Primarolo, the health minister, said: “One in seven couples need help with fertility treatment, 350,000 people live with Alzheimer’s, every week there are five children born and three young people die from cystic fibrosis – all issues that this Bill addresses.” Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose youngest son suffers from cystic fibrosis, attended the Commons in person to vote for the proposals, having urged MPs to back the move.

Hybrid embryos, created by inserting the nuclei of a human cell into an empty animal egg (they are genetically 99.9 per cent human), are a tool for generating disease-specific embryonic stem cells without the need to use donated human eggs; the cells will not be used in patients, but be used to model diseases in the lab, test new therapies and study cloning processes. They can ensure a more plentiful supply of stem cells for use in research into treating conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Our campaign in support of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research and therapeutic cloning, also known as somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), has been greatly simplified. Gone now are the sections I had planned – “Science and Religion”, “Science and the Law” and “Religion in Public Life” – mainly because Declan was right all along: they distract from the campaign. Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International are still our main models. Like Greenpeace UK, we will include in the homepage menu “Blog”, “About NAC”, “What we do” and “Media centre”.

What for Greenpeace UK is the subsection “Climate change” – after you click “What we do” – for us will be “Embryonic stem cell research” and will include the following associated subsections: “Science”, “Law”, “Ethics” and “Applications”. And, as in the Greenpeace International website, each of these associated subsections will be further subdivided; for example, the serious threat to hESC research of the “non-material neuroscience” movement (see previous blog) will be dealt with under “Ethics”. The subsection “Somatic-cell nuclear transfer” will include the same associated subsections. In it, we will publish, for example, all the various letters that have been signed by Nobel Laureates in support of SCNT.

We won’t be announcing Declan’s petition to the UN in this website since I believe it's best if scientists and academics sign it first. What interested person would say no to a petition that has been signed by top scientists and academics from around the world, including 24 Nobel Laureates (as of today)?

US bishops condemn embryonic stem cell research

This morning Declan paid another visit to Brick Lane police station to enquire if PC Van-Gelder (number unknown) has started the investigation into the robbery in the Catholic Dellow Centre of his main bag, which contained all our money and documents (see blog of 18 June “Declan robbed in the Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre”) – the robbery took place the same day Declan had intended sending by registered post his second request for priority to the European Court of Human Rights, which I posted to the blog that afternoon; and can be read here. (Two days after the robbery, the Dellow Centre presented Declan with a letter from the European Court, which is published in the previous blog).

No, there is no news at all, and Declan can’t speak with PC Van-Gelder because he is not in the station. Declan will try again tomorrow – the entire canteen area is covered by CCTV; although Declan was informed in Southwark police station the next day that homeless day centres generally don’t provide police with information on clients without a warrant (see blog of 19 June “Declan assaulted in the Manna Centre”).

Bishops' document blasts embryonic stem cell research

On 13 June, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a document titled "On Embryonic Stem Cell Research", the first formal statement issued by the organisation devoted exclusively to the issue. The bishops voted 191-1 to adopt the statement, without debate or discussion. Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, and part of the bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, was hopeful the document "would be taken seriously by all policymakers".

In a BBC article of 10 April Sir Martin Evans, who received the Nobel Prize for medicine last year, urged British MPs voting on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill to "stop listening to the emotive arguments of religiously motivated pressure groups”, adding: “Please look at the evidence. Don't immediately go for the knee-jerk reaction mainly powered by the 'yuck' factor.” The US bishops’ statement finds room for plenty emotive arguments. We read that “harvesting embryonic stem cells involves the deliberate killing of innocent human beings”, that “some researchers, ethicists, and policy makers claim that we may directly kill innocent embryonic human beings as if they were mere objects of research”, and that “the same ethic that justifies taking some lives to help the patient with Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease today can be used to sacrifice that very patient tomorrow”.

Sir Martin is also quoted in the article as saying: “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.” Lisa Jardine, the new chair of the British Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, is one such scientist. She tells the New Statesman (see blog of 29 May “Stem cells and morality”) when asked about the beginning of life: "I think I need consciousness - I've a little bit of a philosophical temperament - and we're a hell of a way from consciousness at 14 days." She adds: "The moment of fertilisation is not a very helpful moment to begin talking about the sanctity of human life. As a woman who's had a long childbearing life, I know perfectly well that any number of embryos were swept away. Maybe [some] naturally, but some of them weren't. Sometimes I'd jumped up and down in the hope that I wasn't pregnant, you know?"

Also in the same issue of the New Statesman is philosopher Julian Baggini on deciding ethical issues. "When it comes to specific matters of morality, the idea that religious convictions need respect, not interrogation and defence, is absurd," he writes. "The world's major religious texts have nothing to say about stem cells, not least because those words do not appear in any of them. It may be a matter of faith that Christ rose from the dead, but Christians have to defend anything they say about the first stages of life." Clearly the bishops do not believe they have to defend anything they say about the first stages of life: they make their case with appeals like “the human embryo, from conception onward, is as much a living member of the human species as any of us” (and related expressions as “the embryo is a complete and distinct member of the species Homo sapiens” and “human beings at the embryonic stage of development”).

The US bishops’ statement has a problem not just with embryonic stem cell research but with therapeutic cloning, also known as somatic cell nuclear transfer – it is “intrinsically evil,” they say, “because it reduces human procreation to a mere manufacturing process, producing new human beings in the laboratory to predetermined specifications as though they were commodities”. The NSW Minister for Science and Medical Research, Verity Firth, wouldn’t be impressed to hear therapeutic cloning described as “intrinsically evil”: on 19 June she announced at the BIO 2008 convention in San Diego that Sydney IVF and the Australian Stem Cell Centre (ASCC) in Melbourne have launched a project to characterise and compare induced pluripotent stem cells, human embryonic stem cells and stem cells derived from somatic cell nuclear transfer. "Both the NSW and Victorian governments are proud to be supporting this ground-breaking work, which we believe will offer new hope to people living with debilitating diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease,” Firth said. "The combination of the international quality talent and significant resources of these two collaborative partners gives this project the potential to provide world-first advancements in these new biological frontiers."

And what about hybrid embryos, which the US bishops are also troubled by because they “disturbingly blur the line between animal and human species”? Well, on 19 May British MPs voted in favour of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which allows for the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos (see blog of 20 May "UK parliament backs human-animal embryo research") – the hybrid approach is a tool for generating disease-specific embryonic stem cells without the need to use donated human eggs; the cells will not be used in patients, but be used to model diseases in the lab, test new therapies and study cloning processes. (In April, Lyle Armstrong of Newcastle University, a signatory of Declan’s petition to the UN on therapeutic cloning, announced that he and his team had created human-animal hybrid embryos for the first time in Britain. The scientists merged human genetic material with cow egg cells that had most of their own genetic material removed, see blog of 5 April “Declan narrowly escapes being assaulted”.)

The bishops write that adult stem cells “have already demonstrated great medical promise” – but in an article that appeared on 11 June in the Minnesota Daily, Rep Phyllis Kahn, who has a PhD in biophysics from Yale, states: “We can't really maximize the potential of adult stem cells without the parallel embryonic stem cell science." The bishops further adduce: “Researchers have even developed new non-destructive methods for producing cells with the properties of embryonic stem cells – for example, by ‘reprogramming’ adult cells.” However, on 30 January the International Society for Stem Cell Research issued a statement on the stem cell initiatives announced in President Bush’s State of the Union Address, which says: “The breakthrough in iPS cell research was made possible by several years of prior embryonic stem cell research. Embryonic stem cell research must continue if scientists are going to have the most modern and powerful research tools at their disposal”.

Despite these exclusions, the bishops write: “It now seems undeniable that once we cross the fundamental moral line that prevents us from treating any fellow human being as a mere object of research, there is no stopping point. The only moral stance that affirms the human dignity of all of us is to reject the first step down this path.” The concept of human dignity has been dealt with by Steven Pinker – world-renowned thinker and Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University (and an honorary associate of NAC and early signatory of Declan’s petition) – in an article for The New Republic entitled “The Stupidity of Dignity” (see blog of 23 May “The Stupidity of Dignity”). Denouncing dignity, for one thing, as a “squishy” concept (ambiguous, slippery, and vague), Pinker writes:

The concept of dignity is natural ground on which to build an obstructionist bioethics. An alleged breach of dignity provides a way for third parties to pass judgment on actions that are knowingly and willingly chosen by the affected individuals. It thus offers a moralistic justification for expanded government regulation of science, medicine, and private life. And the Church's franchise to guide people in the most profound events of their lives--birth, death, and reproduction--is in danger of being undermined when biomedicine scrambles the rules. It's not surprising, then, that "dignity" is a recurring theme in Catholic doctrine: The word appears more than 100 times in the 1997 edition of the Catechism and is a leitmotif in the Vatican's recent pronouncements on biomedicine.

So, despite the best efforts of the US bishops, I can’t help but think about an article by professor of philosophy AC Grayling – and one of Britain’s foremost public intellectuals – published in The Guardian on 3 May 2006, which states that “it is the business of all religious doctrines to keep their votaries in a state of intellectual infancy (how else do they keep absurdities seeming credible?)”. Oh well, granted: I am not the most impartial person in the world.

UK parliament backs human-animal embryo research

British scientists will be allowed to research devastating diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s using human-animal embryos after the House of Commons rejected a ban yesterday. An amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill that would have outlawed the creation of "human admixed embryos" for medical research was defeated in a free vote by 336 votes to 176, a majority of 160, preserving what Prime Minister Gordon Brown regarded as a central element of the legislation.

Across-party bid to ban hybrid embryos rejected

Gordon Brown, whose one-year-old son Fraser has cystic fibrosis and could benefit from embryo research, wrote in a piece published in The Observer last Sunday:

Around the world, researchers now face a severe shortage of embryonic stem cells. They argue that the safest way to maintain progress is to make use of animal eggs from which the animal genetic material is almost entirely removed, then a human cell nucleus added, to make them compatible for research on human diseases. If these 'human admixed embryos' survive for a few days, stem cells may be collected from them and grown in culture. The embryos are then destroyed. By permitting the use of this technique, we may be able to bring to an end the critical limiting factor in stem cell research: the lack of human eggs from which to create embryos and collect stem cells.

The main kinds of admixed embryo permitted by the Bill are “cytoplasmic hybrids” or “cybrids”, which are made by moving a human nucleus into an empty animal egg. These are genetically 99.9 per cent human. A second amendment, which would have banned the creation of "true hybrids" made by fertilising an animal egg with human sperm, or vice-versa, and are 50 per cent human, was also defeated yesterday by 286 votes to 223, a majority of 63. As well as true hybrids, the legislation allows chimeras that combine human and animal cells, and transgenic human embryos that include a little animal DNA.

It is legal to culture admixed embryos up to 14 days and illegal to transfer them to a human or animal womb.

Conservative leader David Cameron praised MPs' vote not to ban animal-human embryos. He told GMTV: "I have got a son with epilepsy and cerebral palsy. When I look at how he suffers ... and if we can do anything to stop him suffering and stop other children suffering, should we not try?"

Three Roman Catholic members of the Cabinet were among a series of ministers who backed a ban. Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, Des Browne, the Defence Secretary and Paul Murphy, the Welsh Secretary, all backed calls for a full ban on hybrid embryos. MPs opposed to the proposals said the hybrid embryos were morally unacceptable and offered no guarantee of a medical breakthrough.

Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris argued: “The outrageous allegation has been made that there have been no treatments despite conducting [embryonic stem cell research] for decades. That is simply not the case. Adult stem cells have featured in clinical trials since the 1950s and it would therefore be a shock if we did not have therapies as a result. The first human embryonic stem cell lines were derived in the UK by Stephen Minger’s group at King’s college in 2003. The first ES cells worldwide were created only in 1998. Since it takes 15 years to get a molecule into patients, it is not surprising that it will take some years yet to experience the clinical benefits of the research. Arguing that it has not been done in five years, so it should therefore be thrown out, is preposterous and the worst argument that I have heard from opponents of the research.”

The most immediate implication of the Commons vote will be to allow teams at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and King’s College London, which already hold licences to create cybrids, to continue their research. Though they were cleared to start these experiments by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in January, their licences would have been rescinded had MPs voted for a ban.

The decision will also encourage a third team, which plans to use admixed embryos to study motor neuron disease, to apply for a licence. Professor Chris Shaw, head of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at King's College London (and a signatory to Declan’s petition to the UN on therapeutic cloning), who leads the group, said: “It will allow us to forge ahead on all fronts in our attempts to understand and develop therapies for a huge range of currently incurable diseases. Cures may be some years off, but this vote does mean we can use hybrid embryos, in addition to adult stem cells, in our search to understand what causes Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and motor neuron disease.”

Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, head of genetics at the National Institute For Medical Research in London (and another signatory of Declan’s petition), said the vote would aid understanding of embryonic development and of genetic disease. “This understanding will ultimately give us the best chance of developing therapies for these diseases, for infertility and for a range of other medical conditions.”

Simon Denegri, chief executive of the Association for Medical Research Charities, said: “MPs have clearly listened to the strong arguments put forward by medical research charities, patient groups and scientists of the importance of this research to advancing our understanding of diseases and conditions that affect hundreds of thousands of people in the UK.”

The Times today carries an analysis by Science Editor Mark Henderson under the title “Benefits are years off, but it’s a victory for scientific freedom”. Henderson says:

As cybrids are supported by all the country’s leading scientific institutions, a ban would have suggested that this considered consensus matters less to Parliament than the vocal concerns of a religious minority … The vote is significant for another reason: it will encourage scientists to speak out more about their research. The Government intended to ban cybrids, but changed its mind when stem cell experts such as Stephen Minger [a signatory of Declan’s petition] and Lyle Armstrong [another signatory of the petition] took time to say what they planned to do, and why.

Catholic leaders were unified in their unhappiness over the Bill. In a joint statement, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor and Cardinal Sean Brady said: "Not nearly enough time has been given to discussing these issues and these questions require answers before and not after legislation. Other emerging techniques hold potential for good, without creating and destroying human embryos." Phyllis Bowman of Right to Life said: “The ignoramuses have voted to waste money that will achieve nothing.”

More racially aggravated harassment in the Dellow Centre

Life as a rough sleeper is never boring. This afternoon Declan had to send another email letter to the head of the Catholic Church in Britain, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor (Abhreception@rcdow.org.uk), in his capacity as the Archbishop of the Diocese of Westminster, regarding the Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre:

Subject: Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre

Dear Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor

I refer to my email letters to you of 21 and 28 April regarding the above, to which I did not receive acknowledgement.

I wish to confirm that, pursuant to sections 2 (causing harassment) and 4 (fear of violence) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, this morning at 11.00am at Brick Lane police station I submitted the following memo for the attention of the crime investigation officer to be allocated to the case (crime reference number 4212667/08):

[In the Dellow Centre’s men's washroom] I'm well out of the shower. "Are you finished with the showers?" the suspect asks. I ignore him (history of threatening and abusive behaviour - reckon he is just looking for trouble). "What are you doing in my country, you bastard?" "What are you doing here?" he repeats, demanding an answer. I ignore him again, and quickly get my things together to leave under a barrage of racial and threatening abuse. Washed in the park this morning in event I might have to vacate the washroom at a moment's notice. When I passed the suspect in the canteen, he fakes a head-butt at me to within an inch of my face.

Postscript: With regard to the Dellow Centre's [warning] letter to the suspect, I stated that would be up to the centre, but that I would be reporting the matter to the police.

I further confirm that the police officer who opened the file in this case for "racially aggravated harassment" informed my wife and I that an investigation officer would visit the Dellow Centre this afternoon, and that if the suspect harasses or puts either one of us in fear of violence in the Manna Centre (whose building is provided rent-free by the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark) this weekend 8.30am - 12.00noon, we should report him to the local police station. (On 11 April in the Manna Centre the suspect indirectly informed my wife that she would be found one morning with a knife in her back, and last Saturday in the same centre he provocatively (and without any provocation) blocked her passage on her way back to her chair.)

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey
Chain no. 69828

cc Ms Jo Ansell, CEO of Providence Row Charity (of which the Dellow Centre is a part)

Today’s Times has published a letter from sixteen scientists under the title “Stem-cell therapy is no miracle cure: Scientists from around the world express a note of caution on stem-cell therapy”. The letter states that “given the current state of more conventional embryonic stem-cell research, of adult stem-cell research, and of induced pluripotent stem-cell research, there is no demonstrable scientific or medical case for insisting on creating, without any clear scientific precedent, a wide spectrum of human-non-human hybrid entities or ‘human admixed embryos’.” (Last Monday British MPs voted to allow controversial plans to update human embryology laws to continue to their next Parliamentary stage, despite deep splits among MPs. The main battle will come this coming Monday at Committee Stage, when MPs will have a free vote on the part of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill - a flagship bill of government - relating to research using “admixed” cytoplasmic hybrid embryos.)

Prime Minister Gordon Brown – whose youngest son has cystic fibrosis, a condition that could one day benefit from embryo research – has called on MPs to back the use of hybrid embryos for research.

The Medical Research Council, the Royal Society, the Wellcome Trust and the Academy of Medical Sciences also support the research. In a briefing document (reported by the BBC on 15 January), the four research institutions spell out why they see hybrid embryos as so important: "This research has massive potential to provide treatments for serious debilitating disorders ranging from developmental abnormalities in young children, to stroke, cancer, HIV/Aids, diabetes and Parkinson's disease, as well as better and safer treatment for infertile couples." The Association of Medical Research Charities and the Genetic Interest Group, which between them represent more than 200 patient charities, said the research "could greatly increase our understanding of serious medical conditions affecting millions", and have written to all MPs urging them to support the bill. The UK National Stem Cell Network Steering Committee, which organised a three-day conference in Edinburgh last month attended by the world's leading researchers in stem cells, has called for MPs “to enshrine tight regulations in the HFE Bill but to ensure that all types of derivation remain open to researchers.”

Critics, including pro-life groups and Catholic leaders, have branded hybrid embryos "Frankenstein science". The Catholic church has been accused by the government’s fertility watchdog of using “fatal” dogma to oppose all forms of research on embryos and most IVF treatment. Lisa Jardine, chairwoman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, points out that the church, unlike other religions, had an “insoluble problem” in its fundamental opposition to the destruction of any human embryos, regardless of their stage of development. In an article in the Sunday Times of 11 May, Jardine is quoted as saying:

There is a fatal impediment in Catholicism to all discussion of research on embryos that involves the destruction of embryos at whatever stage. This is not clear to the public in my view. The Catholic church is opposed to hybrid embryos, but then it is opposed to all embryonic research. The public hasn’t taken this on board. For the most part, people don’t realise how fundamental this [stance] is.

Jardine says that once the public understands why scientists wish to create hybrid embryos they approve of the research. She is right: a poll for the Times revealed on 10 April 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.

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.

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

We are seeking to raise £4,000

This Easter holiday Declan and I had a very lucky escape, and the weather didn't help (the worst in 25 years, according to the Met Office). We entered it on the wrong foot too. On Tuesday last week, Declan received an email from Network Rail in reply to his email of 8 January to its chief executive after he was told by an attendant in the public toilets of Liverpool Street Station that he could no longer use the facility to wash (although he continued to wash there). The basins "should be used to wash your hands/face only", this email states, effectively barring not only Declan but also me from the entrance-fee public toilets. We had of course been doing our teeth there (and Declan his shaving) ever since the Methodist Church-run Whitechapel Mission barred us back in June due to concerns about our safety. So since Wednesday last I splash some water on my hands and face and go to the train station at 5.45am to do my begging – instead of the normal 6.45am. Which brings me to the second event. On Thursday, the last day I had to get some money for the long weekend, another homeless was also there doing some begging; I kept bumping into him too.

Somehow, while in the Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre, somebody mentioned another homeless centre which, unlike the Dellow, would be open over the holiday period (Friday to Monday). It turned out to be quite a walk, made harder by the horrendous weather – frost, wind, rain, snow, you pick, we had it all – but nonetheless we got some breakfast and lunch and that averted a catastrophic four days.

I won't go into the freezing temperatures overnight or the predicament of having almost nowhere to go for the afternoon (it was indeed unfortunate that on 8 March the manager of our local McDonald's at Liverpool Street Station barred us from the premises, see blog of 9 March "Home Office denies warrant to intercept communications"). Surface it is to say that during those long four days I really wished the European Court of Human Rights had written to Declan, just so I could have tossed the 1,000-page European law book I carry everywhere as part of my belongings: Declan received a letter from the Registrar 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. (We have concluded that since we didn't convince the Court of the merits of our case for priority, the chances are we didn't put a good enough case together for the Government to be invited to set out its observations on the merits and admissibility of the case.)

Come this week there is only one thing left standing and that is the porch we have slept in since 3 November 2006 – we haven't been barred from the Dellow Centre so far and are quite mindful there (although Declan now has to further bullfight the homeless in the men's washroom). Anybody who saw the porch would know it is not used at all: the walls and floor are so dirty you wouldn't be sure of their original colour (and that despite my wiping of the floor almost every night); months ago a distributor left five Thomson phone directories by the door, which have never been collected; large rubbish bags languish at one side of the porch for days (one was actually thrown over us as we slept not long ago); and the building of offices has an attractive front glass door around the corner. Yet the signs are ominous: every single night now workers are going in and out of the building through the porch door; since the beginning of the year a cleaner has been going in and out through the porch door every weekday night between 10.00pm and 11.00pm and another cleaner has been doing the same between 5.00am and 5.30am (we get up at 4.30am); on Wednesday a worker went in at 4.15am and on Easter Sunday two workers came out as soon as we put a foot in the porch at 7.30pm (these two events are a first); and of course there is the two police officers who visited us on 22 February to tell us that they had an order to evict us.

Aside from not having another place to go to, I suspect in respect of this other place to sleep that an assault on me may well be on the cards under the pretext that we clearly chose an unsafe place to bed down (I sleep on the outside so that Declan can sleep with our well tied bags on the inside). I haven't forgotten that within two weeks of sleeping in the porch we are using, somebody sat on the right hand side of my face in the middle of the night - I have also been dragged out of the two-step porch by the ankles, and another night kicked repeatedly in the chest and shoulders by some guy as his mates stood by.

Declan's petition to the UN in support of human cloning for therapeutic purposes has been signed to date by 503 scientists and academics, including 22 Nobel laureates, despite that the majority of his emails are flagged as spam (see previous blog "SpamCop reports Declan as a spammer"). That is the reason why for example nobody signed on 20 March, and only 4 scientists did so the previous day - the Tower Hamlets Council's Idea Store Whitechapel, where we do all our emailing, imposed a 3-hour limit on free computer use on both our membership cards on 29 January, but we can still email about 350 scientists in a day.

So we have decided that it is time to try and raise £4,000. With some of the money we would rent the most basic place imaginable (all we are seeking is a fourth wall for safety); with an address we would be able to register NAC as a company so we are legal and accountable to our agreed trustees (since the NAC website was suspended on 8 March, I have listed NAC trustees and honorary associates in the blog of 9 March "Home Office denies warrant to intercept communications"); NAC as a company would also entitle us to a business account which would allow us to pay for a web hosting provider; and I would be in a position to buy a laptop, which nowadays can be done quite cheaply – I wouldn't even need a home internet connection since virtually all public libraries in London are free WiFi Hot Spots.

We are well used to getting up at 4.30am and to working hard, so I believe that within a couple of weeks of buying a laptop I would have done a 20 or so page website in support of Declan's petition to the UN – as I reported in the previous blog, the NAC website is not going to be uploaded again. The website would be loosely based on Oxfam's highly successful "Make Trade Fair" (although initially the home page would look more like "the issues" page). The objective would be to attract the endorsement of scientific organisations so that we could then be in a position to ask prominent advocates of embryo research to collaborate in the campaign.

The campaign would seek to (i) raise awareness of the challenges and benefits of therapeutic cloning and human embryonic stem cell research, and (ii) encourage political discussions in countries around the world. Declan of course would continue to seek signatories and more directly contact Nobel laureates and other distinguished scientists and academics. We believe this initiative would generate quite a bit of interest if we can get, say, two thousand scientists and academics to sign the petition, before we take it to the wider public.

There would also be a blog exclusively on therapeutic cloning and embryonic stem cell research. I already have a few design models in mind and very much think we would be able to attract commentaries from scientists (even interviews through email) and from lay activists. The blog would gather important scientific news in the field, public policy developments and counterarguments to those who wish to impede embryo research.


Video: Gordon Brown seeks embryo compromise

This Easter holiday has also been quite problematic for Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, used his Easter Sunday homily to launch an attack on the Government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill – the bill, which has already passed the House of Lords, proposes to legalise the creation of hybrid embryos, make it easier for gay couples to access IVF and encourage the development of stem-cell therapies – warning Brown against imposing a three-line whip ordering Labour MPs to vote with the party line in favour of the bill. The cardinal claimed that the bill would lead to the endorsement of experiments of "Frankenstein proportions" and that it is “a monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life.”

It clearly fell on deaf ears that the Medical Research Council, the Royal Society, the Wellcome Trust and the Academy of Medical Sciences issued a briefing document (reported by the BBC on 15 January) spelling out why they see hybrid embryos as so important: “This research has massive potential to provide treatments for serious debilitating disorders ranging from developmental abnormalities in young children, to stroke, cancer, HIV/Aids, diabetes and Parkinson's disease, as well as better and safer treatment for infertile couples.” (The briefing document also called for the hybrids to be known as "human admixed" embryos to reflect the fact that they are overwhelmingly made of human tissue, with just a tiny amount of animal DNA added in.)

Scientists were not impressed. "The Catholic Bishops are using scaremongering tactics in an attempt to block important medical research aimed at understanding and developing treatments for incurable diseases," said Dr Chris Shaw, professor of neurology and neurogenetics at King's College London (and a signatory of Declan’s petition). Dr Stephen Minger, director of the stem cell biology laboratory at King's College London (and also a signatory of the petition) added: "The church should carefully review the science they are commenting on, and ensure that their official comments are accurate, before seriously misinforming their congregations." And Dr Robin Lovell-Badge, head of genetics at the National Institute For Medical Research (and another signatory of the petition): "How can a little ball of cells violate human dignity or scare anyone, especially when its purpose is to do good?"

A Department of Health spokeswoman said that the Government was proposing "strict controls" on the research. "This is not about 'creating monsters'. It is purely laboratory research, and is aimed at increasing knowledge about serious diseases and treatments for them."

The Association of Medical Research Charities and the Genetic Interest Group, which between them represent more than 200 patient charities, said the research "could greatly increase our understanding of serious medical conditions affecting millions", and have written to all MPs urging them to support the bill.

Lib Dem MP Dr Evan Harris said the bill was a "decent and civilising" measure. He said: "The use of terms like ‘monstrous’ and ‘Frankenstein’ to describe microscopic embryonic entities which contain animal and human material is preposterous scare-mongering given the millions of people who have received life-saving pig-heart valves. He [Cardinal O'Brien] is entitled to reject any treatment coming from this research on behalf of himself and his more devout followers but the millions of people hoping for medical research breakthroughs using stem cell technology would regard his attempt to veto this for them as well to be 'monstrous'."

One of those millions of people is Geraldine Peacock CBE, a former chair of the Charity Commission, who has had Parkinson's for 18 years, and had the following to say:

I wish one of these pontificators could get inside my body and see what it feels like. Parkinson's is like being locked in your own body when your mind is still there. I can become as rigid as a plank and my legs won't bend. It's as though there is a ton of cement on my chest and an army of ants crawling up and down my body with spears. It's like being buried alive.

By the age of 70, three-quarters of those in this country will have Parkinson's disease to some degree as it is a degenerative illness. Once you have it, it never goes into remission. But no one tells you how difficult it is to live with.

It makes me so angry when I hear academics, theologians or medics arguing about cloning. For me, it is like hearing any hopes we may have of returning to normality being taken away. By mixing ethics with religion and politics, which is a lethal concoction, they are not thinking about the people who have the disease. I feel like saying, 'Get off your high horse.'

I would not want to stop any process unless I knew it was categorically not going to work for those who are suffering. I don't believe cloning embryos is like taking life. Parkinson's is such a desperately painful disease. You would have thought that everyone would support anything reasonable to find a cure, and I believe what is being suggested is reasonable.

No doubt they too will fall on deaf ears; and in relation to Gordon Brown, well, responding to pressure from within his party and from senior figures in the Church, he has agreed to the unusual step of allowing Labour MPs a free vote on the most controversial sections of the bill – no wonder Declan and I were made rough sleepers.