Bush adviser accuses Britain of crossing 'moral boundary' on cloning

[IChing]

President Bush's chief adviser on medical ethics yesterday accused Britain of crossing a "moral boundary" by allowing scientists to clone human embryos. Dr Leon Kass spoke ahead of a key United Nations vote which the Americans hope will ensure a worldwide ban on all forms of cloning.

British scientists, backed by the Government, say that such a ban would seriously hamper vital research into diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Last month scientists at Newcastle University were granted the first British licence to clone human embryos for research.

Therapeutic cloning involves creating copies of human embryos and harvesting stem cells from them which can develop into any tissue of the human body. The embryos are destroyed before they are 14 days old and are still simply a cluster of cells no bigger than a pinhead.

Therapeutic cloning has been legal in Britain since 2002 although reproductive cloning - which aims to create human life - is outlawed in the UK and most of the rest of the world.
Some maverick scientists such as the Raelian claim they have already created a cloned baby, although they have produced no evidence to back up their announcements.
The United Nations is due to vote tomorrow on whether to back a worldwide ban on therapeutic and reproductive cloning.

Mr Bush and the Costa Rican government are in favour of a UN resolution which would outlaw all forms of cloning.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3602347&thesection=news&thesubsection=world

[aquart]

1. Bet Britain is REAL impressed.

[puddycat]

2. I just don't see what the big deal is about cloning.

why don't the fundies like it?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Bush advisors? Moral boundaries? Please tell me they're kidding!

[Maple]

4. 'Crossing a moral boundary'

Same as they said to Queen Victoria about pain relief during childbirth.

Women weren't supposed to have any such thing because 'in pain shall women bring forth children'

To her everlasting credit Victoria said...'screw moral boundaries, get me some fuckin' pain relief'

I am of course paraphrasing...Queen Victoria's language was much saltier than that.

[IChing]

5. Pinheads

sorry to use that word but

"The embryos are destroyed before they are 14 days old and are still simply a cluster of cells no bigger than a pinhead."

[xxqqqzme]

6. this administration wouldn't know

a 'moral boundry' if it tripped on it.

edit: just a thought
But I would argue they have invaded it.

[ronabop]

7. Kass is to bioethics as Scalia is to law...

He's borderline insane at times. A good way to make credible bioethicists giggle, or roll their eyes, or just plain groan, is to start a phrase with "Well, Dr. Kass opined..."

He's basically a fundie who thinks that scientists with any opinions that differ from his own must lack a true belief in god... some of his own whackier arguments include:
-That using cadavers to teach medicine is immoral.
-That drugs such as Prozac, lithium, etc. are altering the brain given to us by god, so such drugs are immoral.
-That medicine which sustains human life longer than expected is immoral.

He's basically another nut-job brought in by shrub to turn back the clock.

-Bop

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. He doesn't seem to have a clue

"This is the first step towards having a situation where a human life is determined, not by a chance union of egg and sperm, but by the deliberate design of someone. A woman's body should not be a laboratory for research or a factory for spare body parts. No child should be forced to say, 'my father or mother is an embryonic stem cell'."

Well, the first step was people saying "let's try for a baby!". Slightly more seriously, artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization are more like the first steps. As he admits, that results in excess embryos that will probably be discarded.

"A woman's body should not be a laboratory for research"? A woman's, and a man's, body should be used for all kinds of research! What does he want us to do - stop developing new drugs?

'my father or mother is an embryonic stem cell' - well, we all come from one cell anyway. But no child will be involved in this. They take the cell nucleus from an adult, replace the nucleus of an unfertilized egg with it, and then get it to develop up to the 14 day stage. Then they use the cells. No fertilization involved; if you believe in a soul, where does it start in this process? Is this any different from an organ transplant, or a blood transfusion?

It really is frightening that Kass is in charge of a bioethics committee.

[Aunt Anti-bush]

9. They are giving advice on morality???

I've heard it all now.