Bishop: Oppose embryonic stem cell research

The Big Issue is a magazine sold by homeless people throughout the UK on registered street pitches. As I wrote in the blog of 17 November, our Big Issue pitches have been terminated (see blog of 11 November “Letter of complaint to the chair of The Big Issue Foundation Charity”); and although we can still sell the magazine on the pitches we had for two years, we have no priority whatsoever: we have to leave if the vendors to whom the pitches have been allocated come along, and not stand in on the pitches at all if a vendor is already there – the latter has been experienced by Declan for two days now. The fact that we don’t have pitches any more is particularly serious for me, because I am facing possible prosecution for begging.

The vast majority of emails I send to scientists and academics inviting them to sign Declan’s petition to the UN on research cloning of embryos and stem cells are still being dumped to spam boxes. In fact, as I explained in the blog of 18 November “Our sleeping pitch is soaked”, the spamming is quite severe. Yesterday, I only received six out-of-office autoreplies from 320 emails; on Wednesday, it was one from 99 emails. No surprise then that only one scientist signed from 419 emails - last week it was two signatories from 640 emails; three weeks ago, one signatory from 1,072 emails. The petition to date has been signed by 584 scientists and academics, including 24 Nobel Laureates.

James Thomson at Tuesday’s 10-year celebration of his hESC breakthrough

I have also written that since the termination of our Big Issue pitches, I have had to adapt my blogs because we are now restricted to the free 3-hour maximum computer use per day at Idea Store Whitechapel library that our local council imposed on each of our membership cards on 1 February. Emphasis now is on the product of my research so that as soon as I have a laptop I am in a position to build within two weeks a website for our campaign in support of embryonic stem (ES) cell research and therapeutic cloning, also known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Applications will be central to this website; also the institutes, labs and people involved. For a way to develop the navigation menu I have Greenpeace International – see here; also the homepage will be loosely based on theirs (for more about the campaign website, see blog of 1 November “Can a cell have a soul?”).

My thinking behind this website is that once the general public is exposed to the work of scientists and clinicians, the funding their work attracts and the potential for clinical cures and therapies for debilitating diseases and disorders, the misinformation and fear that the Catholic church and conservative evangelical groups continue to spread will be seen straight through. A recent statement written by Bishop Robert Carlson of Saginaw, Michigan to Catholic voters on Proposal 2, the amendment to the Michigan Constitution allowing research on embryos that were created for fertility treatments and would otherwise be discarded, serves as an example. “Because it is scientifically unnecessary, because it goes too far and because it is based on reprehensible moral principles, I call on all Catholics in the Diocese of Saginaw to oppose Proposal 2,” the Bishop wrote. His statement also asserted that the use of adult stem cells “has already played a role in the treatment and cure of over 70 types of diseases” (a claim that has been widely discredited), and that the use of embryonic stem cells “has resulted in zero treatments or cures.” Not only was Proposal 2 approved, but Detroit News exit polling showed 56 percent of voters who identified themselves as Catholic supported the measure – overall the measure passed by a 53-47 margin.

Scientists generally agree it’s crucial to push forward rapidly in all three key areas of stem cell research: embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells and induced pluripotent (or “reprogrammed”) stem cells. Around the world, these three kinds of stem cells are under intense study for possible treatments for conditions from spinal cord injuries to juvenile diabetes. Scientists argue that it would be shortsighted to pursue only one kind because each may hold particular promise for understanding and treating specific diseases. Results in one area of research will continue to shed light on work in the others. The capacity of embryonic stem cells to turn into virtually any other kind of cell obviously gives them the most potential for organ and tissue replacement (ScienceDaily, 14/10).

Herbert Hauptman on Science and Religion

Yesterday Declan wrote once again to the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, following serious verbal abuse by a homeless woman in the Catholic Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre, which belongs to his diocese (see previous blog). We should be almost invisible to other homeless who attend the centre since we are middle-aged, keep to ourselves and are in and out of the place as quickly as possible. Yet, since 10 April, Declan has been forced to wash in the street as a result of harassment and intimidation from other homeless – all our money and documents were also robbed in centre (see blog of 20 June “Declan robbed in the Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre”). And on Monday at 5.00am, as we were about to leave the place we sleep in at night, a cleaner hosed where we bed down (see blog of 3 November “State Stem Cell Policies Deserve National Attention”). So we are very much keeping our fingers crossed for this weekend in the Catholic Manna Centre, where Declan was assaulted on 19 June (see blog “Declan assaulted in the Manna Centre”).

Evangelicals fear the loss of their teenagers.

Two articles were written almost on the same day last week regarding religious fundamentalism in the United States: a review in The Buffalo News of Nobel Laureate Herbert Hauptman’s memoir “On the Beauty of Science”, and an article in The Times by best selling American author Susan Jacoby titled “Religion remains fundamental to US politics”. The articles especially complement previous blogs on Michigan’s Proposal 2, the amendment to the Michigan Constitution that was approved by Michigan voters in Tuesday’s general election, allowing people to donate embryos left over from fertility treatments for scientific research. The proposal pitted the state’s powerful public and private biological research centers against large, conservative Catholic and evangelical populations who equate destroying fertilised eggs with murder. According to The Wall Street Journal, the proposal’s opponents, gathered as Michigan Citizens Against Unrestricted Science and Experimentation, raised more than $7 million in contributions – $5 million alone from the Michigan Catholic Conference – to defeat the initiative and keep the ban on the destruction of human embryos for medical research in place.

Described by the Buffalo News as a “living treasure”, 91-year-old Herbert Hauptman won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1985 for his groundbreaking work in X-ray crystallography, research that helped pave the way in the development of powerful drugs. “On the Beauty of Science” is a sure-to-be-controversial call to arms, said the Buffalo News, as Hauptman argues forcefully that science and religion are incompatible and that Americans must learn to think more critically about science and other issues. Hauptman writes in the memoir: “I believe there is a direct negative connection between belief in religion, especially fundamentalist religion, and public scientific illiteracy.”

The Buffalo News reports that Hauptman believes his country would be better served if people studied more physics, chemistry, mathematics and engineering. Critical thinking, the kind fostered by a closer study of the sciences, is in short supply in the United States these days, he argues. He laments what he considers the mistaken priorities of the Bush administration, which he faults for cutting spending at the National Institutes of Health while spending billions in Iraq. “This is why it is so important for the general public to have a better understanding of where science is headed, or could be headed with the right funding,” Hauptman writes. It’s not just a matter of too little knowledge of science, he argues. The problem is compounded by too much belief in religion, ghosts, angels and alternative medicine, to boot.

“I believe that from an early age, most children in our society are inculcated in superstition and mumbo-jumbo, and so there is no development of the scientific approach to looking at the world,” Hauptman writes. He also tries to figure out why people are religious, and he wonders if human beings have a predisposition to be religious. He contends that the fact that the universe is orderly doesn’t provide evidence for God’s existence. He goes further to argue that science has done far more for humanity than religion, pointing to the development of air travel, computers and modern medicine as examples. Religion, he contends, has prompted too many people to act cruelly and murderously, as in the case of the 9/11 attacks. Hauptman also holds that science is more beautiful than religion, though many people don’t know enough about science and math to truly appreciate the beauty of, say, Gauss’ theorem (Watson, The Buffalo News, 2/11).

Susan Jacoby, author of “The Age of American Unreason”, begins her article in The Times by writing that to most of her European friends, an inexplicable aspect of American culture is “the quixotic persistence and social influence of religious fundamentalism”. She adds: “They cannot understand how Americans could seriously consider for the second highest office in the land a candidate who has worshipped all her adult life at churches where congregants believe the literal truth of every word in the Bible and practise ‘speaking in tongues’.” According to opinion polls, Jacoby writes, about one third of Americans subscribe to a literal interpretation of the Bible – from “the chatty serpent” in the Garden of Eden to “the bloody prophecies in Revelation”. They constitute a large and disciplined minority – a primarily Protestant army of Christian soldiers, with a pre-Enlightenment mindset and disdain for secular values.

Like Hauptman, Jacoby argues that there is a powerful correlation between fundamentalism and lack of education. This year, Jacoby writes, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 45 percent of Americans with no education beyond high school adhere to biblical literalism, while only 29 percent with some university education – and 19 percent of university graduates – share that old-time faith. She adds that Republicans have tapped into the fundamentalist resentment of educated, sceptical elites to form the party’s right-wing Christian base.

Another important dimension, Jacoby contends, is their strange – in view of the history of Protestant anti-Catholicism before John F Kennedy’s election in 1960 – alliance with the most conservative elements within the Roman Catholic Church. “On issues such as abortion and gay marriage, the Catholic hierarchy (as distinct from the Catholic laity, which is much more liberal) and right-wing Protestants are the best of friends,” she writes. “Fundamentalists represent a black-and-white value system. Because their beliefs matter so much more to them than religious indifference does to the religiously indifferent, they exert influence far out of proportion to their numbers. Whether that influence will continue depends partly on the election results and partly on whether the alliance between right-wing Catholics and fundamentalist Protestants endures” (Jacoby, The Times, 31/10).

Well, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in their election analysis, state the following: “After eight years of unprecedented access to the White House and (until 2006) in the halls of Congress, Religious Right organizations are about to lose a lot of clout with much of official Washington and could see their influence at the national level diminished. But it’s unlikely any of these organizations will close down. Rather, they will organize to defeat individual-freedom initiatives put forward by President Barack Obama, and they will place more emphasis on state and local governments as a way to press their agenda forward.” (I also found a similar analysis by Religion Dispatches.)

The University of Michigan Welcomes Passage of Proposal 2

Early yesterday morning, as Declan began selling The Big Issue - a magazine sold by homeless people on registered street pitches - a homeless begged alongside him; provocatively, I might add, like he wanted Declan to say something to him. After Declan left him to the pitch, we were not sure if the incident would prove the highlight of the day: Declan walks a round trip of two hours to the Catholic Manna Centre every weekday to be guaranteed a bite to eat for lunch, where he was assaulted on 19 June (see blog of 19 June “Declan assaulted in the Manna Centre”); and only the day before yesterday at 5.00am, as were about to leave the place we sleep in at night, a cleaner hosed where we bed down (see previous blog).

The vast majority of emails I send to scientists and academics inviting them to sign Declan’s petition to the UN on research cloning of embryos and stem cells end up in spam boxes (or in cyberspace, see blog of 4 September “Obama: Yes to stem cells, funding”), so it doesn’t really count as a highlight. Still, the number of out-of-office autoreplies I received yesterday afternoon was amongst the lowest I have received in months: four from a total of 264 emails. For example, 86 emails to University College London Neuroscience yielded one autoreply; 60 to the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, one - the first email; and 78 to the School of Medicine of University of Southern California, two. (On Monday, it was eight autoreplies from 109 emails to University College London Neuroscience and 118 emails to the School of Medicine of University of Southern California; and two signatures.)

University of Michigan executive officers and faculty issued statements this morning regarding the passage of Proposal 2, the amendment to the Michigan Constitution that allows new embryonic stem cell lines to be derived from embryos that have been created for fertility treatment purposes. The embryos affected by the amendment would otherwise be discarded, unless donated with informed consent.

Proposal 2, approved by voters in yesterday’s general election, overturns a 1978 Michigan law that prohibited creation of new stem cell lines from discarded embryos – the vote was 2,143,101 in favor to 1,945,035 against. Prior to passage of Proposal 2, Michigan has been one of the most restrictive states in the country with respect to embryonic stem cell research.

The proposal pitted the state’s powerful public and private biological research centers against large, conservative Catholic and evangelical populations who equated destroying fertilised eggs with murder (see previous blog). “This is a great night for the state of Michigan,” said Sean Morrison, director of the University of Michigan Center for Stem Cell Biology and a vocal supporter of the proposal. “Clearly the voters saw through the misinformation and fear that the opposition were spreading.

“I can tell you this: We’ll be meeting within the next week ... to expand our embryonic research program. We expect in the short-term millions of new dollars of grants to come from the federal government and private foundations to support the expanded research.”

Proposal 2’s strongest support came from college graduates and people who have done postgraduate work. High school graduates and dropouts were inclined to oppose it, said The Associated Press.

Elsewhere, voters in Colorado rejected a measure defining a person to “include any human being from the moment of fertilization”, which would have applied to sections of the Colorado Constitution that protect “natural and essential rights of persons”, said CNN.

Although, like most people, we expected Democratic candidate Barack Obama to win the general election, we were nonetheless quite pessimistic about Proposal 2 – according to pre-election polls, Michigan voters were split down the middle. All in all, it was a great night for Declan’s petition to the UN and our campaign in support of embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning, also known as somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).

For the record, below is Declan’s email letter yesterday afternoon to the chair of The Big Issue Foundation, Steven Round. The Big Issue has informed us that from this coming Monday we will no longer be able to have a registered pitch, after almost two years surviving on the streets of London by selling the magazine from the same registered pitches; an extremely serious situation for me in particular, in that I am facing possible prosecution for begging, an illegal activity in England. In a reply email yesterday evening, Round informed Declan that he would make sure we receive a response.

Subject: The Big Issue

Dear Mr Round

I am writing to you in your capacity as chair of The Big Issue Foundation. Please find below a copy of my email letter of 7 October to the founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Big Issue, Mr John Bird MBE, to which I have not received a reply. As a seller of The Big Issue magazine, I wish to complain that if my wife and I have not purchased a minimum of 40 magazines each week for four weeks commenced 6 October, from 10 November we will no longer be able to have a registered pitch - we “will be allowed to carry on selling but not have priority on any pitch”.

I can confirm that on 13, 14, 15 and 16 October I emailed The Big Issue with respect to my wife's new badge (1170), which, being unavailable for collection at Head Office on Monday, 13 October, did not become available for her to pick up until 1.00pm on Thursday, 16 October. The same Monday at Head Office - following my own rebadging to the end of February 2009 and the validation of our pitch authorisation slips until the end of Tuesday of the following week - I was advised by Office staff that my wife could not purchase or sell The Big Issue without her new badge.

I can also confirm that the first two working weeks of October culminated in the so-called "Black Friday" financial crash; shares around the world have continued their downward trend, particularly in London; and our pitches are located in the heart of London's financial district. Further, last week temperatures plummeted – the first time London has seen snow in October for 70 years.

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey
Badge no. 1163

---------------------------

Subject: The Big Issue

Dear Mr Bird

As the founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Big Issue, please find enclosed copy of an email I received yesterday, 6 October, from your Outreach Manager for London, Mr Paul Joseph. On 10 September 2007 you wrote to me, stating:

I have employed many people over the years to do jobs related to the running of The Big Issue. I have never employed them to do my job; likewise I do not do their job. Please bear this in mind when you are composing your letters. You do not need to address your letters to me, as it is not my job. I would only get involved if you were utterly and totally let down by those whose job it is in The Big Issue. I hope this assists in your deliberations in pursuit of your claims.

I wish to complain that if my wife and I do not purchase a minimum of 40 magazines each week for the next four weeks, from 10 November we will no longer be able to have a registered pitch - we "will be allowed to carry on selling but not have priority on any pitch".

Yesterday we were only able to afford to buy two Big Issues for resale, and today will only be able to afford to buy another two magazines. Moreover, I wrote to the Registrar of the European Court of Human Rights on 21 August further to my second application for priority under Rule 41 of the Rules of Court, stating:

As explained in previous applications, my wife and I survive on the streets of London by selling The Big Issue, a magazine sold by homeless people on registered street pitches, and I have lodged numerous written complaints with The Big Issue Head Office in respect of my wife and myself being walked off our respective pitch by other street traders, including, inter alia, Big Issue vendors. You will note from my email and attachments to Court of 16 August that not only may my wife be forced into begging (a criminal offence in England), but she has been threatened by The Big Issue with debadging for so doing.

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey
Badge no. 1163

cc Mr Steven Round, Chair of The Big Issue Foundation

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.”

Stem Cell Research: Five Basic Things To Know

Stem cell researcher Sue O'Shea, standing, looks at stem cells in her lab

On 4 November, Mitchigan voters will vote not just for who they want to be president, or to represent them in Congress, but what they want the state to do about stem cells. And the way they vote on a ballot measure called Proposal 2 will determine the fate of a Michigan law that currently restricts research using embryonic stem cells. Stem cell researchers see overturning the law as critical to maintaining momentum in allowing research using embryos. Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota and Louisiana have restrictions similar to Michigan’s. Eight states explicitly permit embryonic stem cell research (see previous blog “Issues Surrounding Leftover Embryos”). A Michigan loss could mean “a swing of the pendulum back” toward greater restrictions in other states, said Doug Engel, chair of the University of Michigan Medical School's Dept of Cell & Developmental Biology (O'Reilly, AMNews, 20/10).

Stem cell research is generating great interest and investment worldwide because it could lead to possible treatments for spinal cord injuries, Parkinson’s disease, juvenile diabetes and other diseases. The main thing is to understand the goals of stem cell research and to sort out fact from fiction, says Science Daily. There are several key facts citizens in Michigan can keep in mind as they navigate through a flood of often conflicting information about stem cell research, say University of Michigan stem cell scientists Sean Morrison, and Sue O’Shea. Morrison directs the Center for Stem Cell Biology at U-M’s Life Sciences Institute and is a faculty member at the U-M Medical School. O’Shea directs the Michigan Center for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research at the Medical School. Here are the five key things they feel every voter should know about stem cells:

1. Scientists generally agree it’s crucial to push forward rapidly in all three key areas of stem cell research: embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells and induced pluripotent (or “reprogrammed”) stem cells. Around the world, these three kinds of stem cells are under intense study for possible treatments for conditions from spinal cord injuries to juvenile diabetes. It would be shortsighted to pursue only one kind, O’Shea says, because each may hold particular promise for understanding and treating specific diseases. “Results in one area of research will continue to shed light on work in the others,” she notes. Morrison observes that much of the attention has focused on embryonic stem cells. “Embryonic stem cells are one type of stem cell that people are very excited about because these are cells that come from the very earliest stages of embryonic development, from microscopically small clumps of cells. And these cells have the capacity to make every cell type in the body in unlimited quantities,” he says. “So, when you’re trying to cure a public health problem, the capacity of embryonic stem cells to make any cell type in unlimited quantities is a powerful advantage.”

2. Embryonic stem cells that scientists study come from early-stage embryos. These embryos are created in fertility clinics for the purpose of fertility treatment. But for a variety of reasons, not all embryos can be used for fertility treatment, and many embryos are discarded. “The embryos that are used for research are microscopically small clumps of cells, smaller than the period at the end of a sentence on a piece of paper,” says Morrison. “They have no specialised tissues of any type; there’s no nervous system, there’s no heart, there are no limbs. These are clumps of cells that oftentimes in a fertility clinic don’t develop in a healthy manner and that doctors would not be willing to implant in patients.” Scientists in most states, but not Michigan, are allowed to use embryos from these clinics to create stem cell lines and develop disease therapies in their laboratories. Science Daily explains that the cells scientists use come from embryos just five days after fertilisation. Embryos at this stage, called blastocysts, are spheres containing about 100 cells that have not yet differentiated into more specialised cells. If some of these cells are placed in a lab dish in the right conditions, they can become stem cell lines that can be maintained indefinitely in an undifferentiated state, or guided to become specific types of cells.

3. Adult stem cells are like supporting actors in the quest for stem cell treatments. Science Daily further explains that adult stem cells are more specialised cells that arise from embryonic stem cells. Also known as tissue-specific stem cells, they are present in adults – but contrary to their name, they’re also found in children, newborn infants and developing fetuses. They have the ability to make one or two kinds of cells, such as blood and immune system cells, brain or muscle cells. Adult stem cells have a more limited capacity to replace themselves than do embryonic stem cells. Says Morrison: “There are many different types of adult stem cells present throughout our tissues. They differ from embryonic stem cells in that they’re already partially specialised, so that blood-forming stem cells in the bone marrow can give rise to all types of blood cells, but not to cell types in other tissues. Adult stem cells are still useful, but they’re more specialised than embryonic stem cells and they don’t have the same capacity to give rise to unlimited numbers of specialised cells.” The claim that adult stem cells have been used to cure more than 70 diseases has been widely discredited, says Science Daily, adding that so far it has been very difficult to get many types of adult stem cells to reproduce in sufficient amounts to lead to effective treatments.

4. Induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, are adult cells reprogrammed to behave like embryonic stem cells. Recently, Japanese and American scientists have developed a third type of stem cell, which are skin cells that have been “reprogrammed” to be similar to embryonic stem cells. About these cells, which are called “induced pluripotent cells”, Morrison says: “This is exciting because it will really enhance our ability to study particularly inherited human diseases. But these cells aren’t ready for prime time in terms of clinical use because the reprogramming process involves the use of viruses, which predispose those cells to cancer, and so none of the reprogrammed lines that we have so far at least would ever be usable in patients.” According to Science Daily, the discovery of iPS cells “demonstrates the promise of embryonic stem cell research to lead to breakthroughs that would change the future of medicine; the ability to reprogram adult human cells was discovered as a result of research on human embryonic stem cells. While iPS cells are an exciting discovery, scientists agree it is too early to assess the technique’s full potential and determine whether the reprogrammed cells truly can function the way embryonic stem cells do.”

5. Michigan scientists want to explore all types of stem cells to look for treatments or cures. But they currently lack a key tool: the ability to develop their own embryonic stem cell lines. Most Michigan scientists, along with many Michigan citizens affected by debilitating diseases, want current state law to be changed, says Science Daily. If the Proposal 2 ballot initiative passes, the law would change to allow Michigan scientists to do what they currently cannot: develop new embryonic stem cell lines using early-stage embryos from fertilisation clinics that would otherwise be discarded. “Under current law, we in Michigan can study cell lines that are created outside of the state, but we can’t derive our own new lines within the state,” Morrison explains. “That’s a crippling problem because most of the lines that we would like to be able to study, in order to study the diseases that affect the people of Michigan, don’t exist yet.” O’Shea notes an important fact about Proposal 2: it requires that the allowed embryos are ones that couples designate for research. The proposal outlaws the sale or purchase of embryos for research and states the research needs to abide by federal law (Science Daily, 14/10).

Letter to the Leader of Tower Hamlets Council

On Friday one scientist signed Declan’s petition to the UN on research cloning of embryos and stem cells despite me having emailed 242 scientists. And in keeping with the norm, I received an exceedingly low number of out-of-office autoreplies – six; for example, 57 emails to Newcastle Biomedicine Newcastle University yielded only one autoreply. Still, on Wednesday I received two autoreplies out of a total of 271 emails (see previous blog) so presumably this time a larger number of my emails were delivered to inboxes, and not spam boxes (or cyberspace, see blog of 4 September “Obama: Yes to stem cells, funding”). And yesterday afternoon Declan had to email the Leader of Tower Hamlets Council regarding Idea Store Whitechapel, the borough's flagship library, learning and information service, and our on-going difficulties with computer bookings and internet access (the email is presented below).

Since 7 September we have been sleeping tucked away, about twenty paces from the side entrance of a building, down some twelve steps. The company that owns the building works with charities, according to their website, but that didn’t stop a cleaner spraying us with a hose at 4.50am this morning as we were packing to leave. I mentioned in the blog of 7 October “Letter to the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Big Issue” that the loss of our Big Issue pitches from 10 November - The Big Issue is a magazine sold by homeless people throughout the UK on registered street pitches - speaks ominously of the weeks to come; well, it would appear things have only started.

Former president Bill Clinton stumps for stem cells in Michigan

According to a Detroit News editorial, Michigan voters should vote yes on Proposal 2 - amending the state constitution to lift the ban on embryonic stem cell research - on a November ballot because it would overturn “one of the most backward laws on human embryonic stem cell research in the nation”. Currently, it is against the law to destroy a human embryo in Michigan. In effect, this also bans embryonic stem cell research, since the research process entails embryo destruction.

Proposal 2 is a constitutional amendment that allows embryonic stem cell research under certain conditions. These conditions, said the News, include that the embryos subject to research were created for the purpose of fertility treatment, the person seeking the treatment voluntarily opted to donate the embryos for research and that they would be discarded anyway if they were not going to be used for research. The amendment forbids the sale of embryos for stem cell research and keeps in place Michigan's ban on the cloning of a human embryo for both reproductive and research purposes.

The embryonic stem cell research ban, said the News, damages the ability of the University of Michigan, one of the leading stem cell research centers, to conduct cutting-edge embryonic stem cell research and recruit leading researchers to the center. Sean Morrison, head of the University of Michigan's Center for Stem Cell Biology, comments that “under current law it is legal in Michigan's fertility clinics to discard human embryos, but not to use them for medical research to try and help patients” (Detroit News, 2/10).

Right now Michigan is one of only five states to ban the use of discarded embryos for medical research (the others: South Dakota, North Dakota, Louisiana and Arkansas), but not everyone wants to see things change. Opposing the ballot question is Michigan Citizens Against Unrestricted Science and Experimentation, which had raised nearly $595,000 by mid-September, said The Ann Arbor News. It is principally supported by the Michigan Catholic Conference, which contributed $500,000, and Right to Life Michigan, which contributed $76,709. Endorsements include other pro-life and religious organisations, such as Democrats for Life of Michigan and the Family Research Council (Gershman, The Ann Arbor News, 6/10).

According to a new report by the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council of Michigan (CRCM), opponents of embryonic stem cell research argue that life begins at the moment of conception or fertilisation, making research on ‘living’ embryos unethical. Abortion is often tied to embryonic stem cell research even though there is no direct link between the two. CRCM: “Embryonic stem cells are derived from pre-implantation embryos, not from aborted embryos or fetuses.”

Proposal 2 will feature prominently in our campaign in support of embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning under the section “Science and the Law” – as it does in the blogs of 4 September “Obama: Yes to stem cells, funding” and of 10 July “Smithies explains his support for embryonic stem cell research”. Yet another application of embryonic stem cell research will also feature prominently in the campaign: scientists at Edinburgh University (from which we have several signatories) revealed on Wednesday that they have found a way to overcome “a major hurdle in creating pancreas and liver cells from human embryonic stem cells in the laboratory”, said The Scotsman. Additionally, the Los Angeles Times examines issues surrounding leftover embryos, which I would like to turn into a blog. Of course, that assumes I can get computer time!

This is Declan's email yesterday afternoon to the Leader of Tower Hamlets Council, Councillor Lutfur Rahman (at cllr.lutfur.rahman@towerhamlets.gov.uk), who is also the Leader of the Labour Group:

Subject: Idea Store Whitechapel

Dear Cllr Rahman

I refer further to the attached copy of my most recent correspondence with Mr Ian McNicol, Head of Idea Stores, to whom the former Leader of Tower Hamlets Council, Cllr Denise Jones, 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 absence of a response from Mr McNichol with respect to the aforementioned complaint, I wish to further confirm that this afternoon at approximately 2.15pm the computer I had booked from 2.00pm to 5.00pm cut out and, after it automatically came back in another card holder's name, I was told by a member of staff to give the computer up as there was no record of a booking in my name from 2.00pm to 3.00pm. (Computers cannot be accessed without a member's name appearing on the monitor at log-in time. Further, I am emailing this during my second one-hour booking on the same computer from 3.00pm to 4.00pm.)

I reconfirm that since my complaint of 21 January to Cllr Jones, my wife and I have not only experienced repeated loss of computer bookings and internet access, but several other problems to boot. For example:

(i) 1 February: the Principal Idea Store Manager, Mr Sergio Dogliani, wrote to me advising that the restriction by Idea Store Whitechapel of my wife and I to a 3-hour maximum free computer use per day as from 29 January stands, despite that for several previous months we were given "additional time" subject to computer availability and in accordance with the Council's then and current "Idea Stores PC Usage Policy";
(ii) 24 June: at approximately 12.30pm, a member of staff threatened my wife with "security" if she did not give her computer up to another card holder, despite that thirty minutes earlier a member of staff had confirmed in writing that my wife had booked the computer from 11.30am to 2.30pm;
(iii) 3 August: both of the computers my wife and I had booked the previous day contained an identical virus which spread to the two USB drives were are using, rendering my wife's portable programs inoperable and corrupting some of my most valuable data;
(iv) 6 August: at approximately 2.45pm, MIMEsweeper, the filter software used by the Idea Store network, blocked access to my Google Mail account due to "Porn Detected". At 3.10pm I was again able to access the account, after which I was informed by the IT technician that "it may happen again for any length of time".

As I explained in my email letters to you of 4 and 6 August, since 22 October 2007 my wife and I have been using as much of our computer time in Idea Store Whitechapel as possible to contact scientists and academics to invite them to sign my petition to the United Nations 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 559 scientists and academics, who include recognised authorities from the world's leading universities and research institutes, as well as 24 Nobel Laureates.

I acknowledge receipt of an email of 7 August 2008 from your Personal Assistant, Ms Rachel Bielby, stating: "Cllr Rahman is now on leave until the end of August. I have asked the office of the Director of Communities, Localities and Culture's office to deal with your correspondence." I can confirm that I have not heard from this office, nor indeed from Tower Hamlets Council.

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey

cc Mr Zoinul Abidin, Manager of Idea Store Whitechapel (by email)