AUGUST 15 2006 

PM AGREES TO CONSCIENCE VOTE ON LOCKHART REPORT AND STEM CELLS

If a Bill is put on whether the Lockhart recommendations be accepted the Parliamentarians will have a free vote on the issue 

On August 2 Minister for Health, Tony Abbott addressed the National Press Club of Australia. I was present in the audience. In his words is was "a  rare chance to tell hundreds of thousands of TV viewers what the Government has done, what the Government is doing and what the Government plans to do next. It’s also an opportunity to explain the thinking behind the Government’s decisions to an audience which understands politics." 

It can be read in its entirety on his website by clicking  here .If you scroll to the end of his speech there are questions posed by journalists. Three questions are about stem cell research and his attitude to it. Mine is the last one.

Mr Abbott defended his stance against Stem Cells was not based on religious belief but instead because 

"there is very little real evidence that embryonic stem cell research is the health nirvana that some of its more enthusiastic advocates portray. I think that some people have been guilty of over-peddling hope to vulnerable people in this area"

he added that  "so-called therapeutic cloning is basically translating "Dolly the sheep"-type situations to human beings and I think that we should think long and hard before going down that path."

With further questioning he admitted

"there are some things that scientists should not do, just as there are some things that scientists should not do, just as there are some things that politicians should not do, some things that financiers should not do. I think that there are rightly limits on what people ought to do"

He qualified  his statement that   " in my view, therapeutic cloning, so-called, is a bridge too far."

and  went on to say  in relation to the Lockhart recommendations on cloning  " I would be quite confident that were we to accept that, in a few years’ time, they would be saying, let's let it go for 30 days; and a few years beyond that, we would have scientists of high standing telling us that we ought to let it go for three months, and so on. I just think that it will be better for all of us if we don't go down this path."

Mr Abbott's comments in the press Club, together  with the apparent rejection by others including the Prime Minister,  raised some  comment from the media.

In the Age the article headline read Abbott fears stem-cell researchers will follow Dolly to clone humans HERE 

There are several important points that need to be considered: : 

 Mr Abbott is to be respected for his personal stance on this issue, however as Minister for Health, should  his personal  view count for any more  than one vote  when it comes to decisions that affect the health of the nation?  We live in a democracy.  The People have three legitimate avenues  for their collective voice to be heard in legislation:  One is through a vote at a general election, one is through a referendum and the third is through the parliamentary process of an independent review. 

The Lockhart review is one such independent review. It was enshrined in Law that such a review of our 2002  human cloning laws  should occur before the third anniversary of the Law's Royal Assent. This happened. The Lockhart review panel  was properly constituted by ministerially appointed independent experts including Nobel Laurite Barry Marshall. This was a publicly funded review. The panel  consulted widely and received over 1000 public submissions for consideration. The report made 54 recommendations. The majority upheld the current laws INCLUDING those preventing any practice that would lead to the cloning of a complete human being. This puts to bed any concerns about "Dolly the sheep-type situations" or latter day  Frankenstein monsters . This type of emotive argument is used to cloud the issues. 

The Lockhart report can be read in its entirety on this website www.lockhartreview.com.au  

Recommendation 53 calls for another review in three years. If the Lockhart review is rejected in its entirety there is no longer any mandate to have further reviews of the law on human cloning. It would not necessarily be an easy task to get such a review up again. 

Mr Abbott's concern that Embryonic Stem Cell research has failed to produce therapeutic advances yet is true. And as the person holding the purse strings for research in this country that may give cause for him to consider how much funding should go its way. However he should not confuse funding with banning. Not having found the key to fully control stem cell development in a few decades is no reason to stop looking. Had research into fungii been banned in 1925 we would never had had penicillin.

These and other issues are discussed in the following articles  

My OPINION PIECE on the Embryonic Stem Cell Debate HERE

 UNDERSTANDING WHAT STEM CELLS ARE and Why they are controversial  - click  HERE

 UNDERSTANDING HOW  TERMINOLOGY  CAN TWIST THE DEBATE- click HERE