Don Reed on the danger of Brownback

[rayilynlee <rayilynlee@xxxxxxx>]

It must be acknowledged that Senator Sam Brownback, (R-KS), wants to be 
President: wants it, in fact, with roughly the same degree of intensity I feel 
about free pizza. He will smile with a fetching modesty when the subject of the 
Presidency is brought up-but if you do not bring it up, it may be necessary for 
him to remind you.



Now the Senator is not a mean person. He should absolutely be listened to when 
he talks about the suffering in Africa-there, he is right. Kindness should be 
nonpartisan, and we can all stand together when it comes to doing good.



He can also be spectacularly wrong.



When it comes to stem cells, he is resolutely and determinedly confused.



He either cannot or will not see the difference between living tissue (stem 
cells in a Petri dish) and a human being. He puts the "rights" of the invisible 
specks in the dish above the suffering of full-grown people.



Senator Brownback would literally send scientists to jail for doing SCNT 
research. He wants manslaughter penalties-- a ten year jail sentence and a one 
million dollar fine-for any patient, parent, scientist or doctor having 
anything to do with Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. 



He is deadly serious about this, having tried three times to pass legislation 
toward that end: that same law is waiting in the wings for Congress and the 
Senate right now.



If I understand him correctly, he has two main worries:



One is that SCNT techniques might be abused: perverted into human reproductive 
cloning. To prevent human reproductive cloning, the Senator wants to 
criminalize SCNT as well. His reasoning is that if we learn how to make stem 
cells efficiently, we may then decide to use those skills for bad purposes, and 
decide to clone children as well. To me, this is like criminalizing exercise, 
because strong bodies might be used to hurt people.



No one has succeeded in doing human reproductive cloning (it is not clear if 
anyone has even tried) and from all the science I have read, the nightmare will 
stay a fantasy.



As you know, reproductive cloning to make Dolly the sheep cost the lives of 276 
"test animals" before her. Even trying to clone a child would put the life of 
both mother and infant at risk. We must never use babies or mothers as "test 
animals".



America should follow California's example. The Golden State's new stem cell 
law-Proposition 71, the California Stem Cells for Research and Cures Act-- puts 
a prohibition against human reproductive cloning directly into the State 
Constitution.



Human reproductive cloning is a crime against humanity, and must never be 
allowed.



The second objection is the eggs. People are worried (and some of their 
concerns are real) that even though the world has used egg-extraction 
procedures for a couple of decades, there are risks involved.



But what if we could do SCNT without using human eggs at all?



No eggs. No sperm. No womb. No pregnancy. Absolutely no possibility of a human 
child. 



How could we do it?



A couple ways.



One is that we could use already existing human embryonic stem cells to make an 
egg-like housing structure.  



Or, we could use rabbit eggs.



I know, that sounds weird, but consider:



We need a sheltering place for the bit of tissue from which personalized stem 
cells could derive.



Rabbit eggs are, to say the least, easily available. You want a few million 
rabbit eggs? Cost you about a dollar fifty. (I'm lying on that part, I have no 
idea what it would cost-but I suspect it would be extremely cheap.)



Too bizarre to be possible? It has already been done. 



Chinese scientists have made human stem cells using empty rabbit eggs as for 
housing. (Y.Chen et al, Cell Research 13, 251-263; 2003). "More than 100 of the 
hybrids, made by fusing human skin cells with rabbit eggs, were allowed to 
develop in laboratory dishes for several days before scientists destroyed them 
to retrieve embryonic stem cells from their interiors." 



It took them several years of painstaking hard work, led by Hui  Zhen Sheng of 
Shanghai Second Medical University. But they did it.



We could make personalized stem cells with all the good possibilities of 
healing-but with no human eggs, no human sperm, no possibility of human 
reproductive cloning. 



Surely, even Sam Brownback would approve.



Well, no.



He wants laws against that too: he wants to criminalize "chimeric" research. A 
chimera is a fictional animal/human monster-head of a lion, body of a man, tail 
of a dragon or a centipede, or something-Senator Brownback is very concerned 
about chimeras.



Chimeric research (the real stuff) is useful and important; personally, I would 
rather test a new drug or procedure on a rat or a rabbit than on a human being.



For example, human embryonic stem cells were injected into the anesthetized 
spines of paralyzed rats-as a result of which they walked again-bringing us a 
giant step closer to conquering paralysis.



Brownback's anti-chimera law would be a problem for people currently surviving 
with a transplanted pig's heart valve. They needed that operation to have a 
chance to stay alive; Brownback's law would of course make such operations 
illegal. It is unclear what the new edict would mean to those who already had 
the operation. Maybe they would need to have a reverse operation to have the 
now-illegal pig heart valve removed-- with the unfortunate side effect that 
they would die. 



I suspect Senator B. will never change his mind, unless someone he loves 
becomes ill with an incurable disease-- and then was cured by a technique 
derived from SCNT research.



If that happened, I predict, he would become our greatest booster.



In the meantime, he is the most effective spokesperson the anti-science brigade 
could want. He is an outstanding speaker, persuasive, smiling, personable, 
eloquent. He has the words, and the charm, and can turn on the thunder.



Can you imagine what he might say, if we ever got close to actually using 
rabbit egg cells for SCNT?



"We must stand firm against this chimeric abomination! The human body is 
sacred, pristine, pure-it must have nothing to do with loathsome human/animal 
interactions!"



 










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