NSW parliament will be debating whether to overturn a 5 year ban on the cloning of human embryos probably sometime during the next week.

At midnight tonight (Friday night), I will be posting a resource written for use in parishes by the Rev Dr Andrew Ford from the Sydney Anglican Social Issues Executive. The url (hopefully) will be found here or just look under the indepth section on our front page. Please feel fee to distribute in Sunday services if desired.

For background, read my news article here

If anyone is still interested.... this cloning bill is likely to be debated today

Keep us informed of any results.

Thanks for the heads up on the main page, its good to encourage Christians to take an interest and get involved in whats being debated in parliament.

... the latest SMH report

Cardinal Pell takes a hard line

Cardinal George Pell has warned Catholic politicians they face “consequences” in the life of the church should they vote for an “immoral” bill before the NSW Parliament to expand stem cell research… MPs would need to seriously think about taking Holy Communion, the key sacrament, Dr Pell said, and “were certainly doing the wrong thing”.

Debate on therapeutic cloning continues in NSW parliament tonight..

... but according to the ABC the focus of debate is on condeming Cardinal Pell’s comments

Today (Tuesday 19 June) would be a good day to e-mail people in the Upper House of NSW State Parliament, as the legislation to allow cloning must pass through that council before it becomes law, and it is likely to be introduced today, and will then be voted on tomorrow..

I’ve mentioned it on my blog and will post a bit more later in the day.

Hi Gordon

Could you give us an e-mail address or two?

Also, can you give those of us who are not as succint and up to date with the topic as you a few pointers of what to say in the emails?

Cheers

Try http://www.makeastand.org.au for contact details and advice on what you can writeabout.

I’ve been writing to MP’s for weeks. The alarming part is that many of them don’t understand the implcations of this legislation.

Where this legislation has been approved in other countries they have quickly come across a problem. Egg supply. This is in countries with large populations - we have to be realistic that with a population as small as ours we will meet this problem very quickly. There are a few solutions to the egg supply issue that other countries have undertaken (see this site for a chart of what stance countries have taken on embryonic stem cell, cloning, and egg supply: chart):

1. Pay women to donate their eggs. Some countries allow this, to the detriment of the women in their countries. The egg harvesting procedure, the same as that in IVF, is invasive and can lead to Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome, which can cause infertility and even death. It can also lead to early menopause.
check www.handsoffourovaries.org
a youtube clip on the issue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv7kGCfnL9Y
a short handout on the prodecure - http://handsoffourovaries.com/docs/handsoffhandbill2.doc

2. Offer susidised IVF - this is already happening in the UK. The fear is that women would be pressured into taking more drugs to increase their egg supply so that they have enough for both the IVF procedure and to donate. This heightens the risk of Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome. It is also unlikely to provide the eggs necessary.

3. Use animal eggs, and so create human/animal hybrids. This step has just been approved in the UK.
See http://your.sydneyanglicans.net/sydneystories/egg_donor_abuse_fears/ for an article today on this, and with links to an article in the UK.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3188104&page=1

Contact details for the MP’s can be found here
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/Parlment/Members.nsf/V3ListCurrentLCMembers, but I will list their addresses below, so that you can just copy and paste into your browser.

Many of the MP’s seemed to be confused between the process of human cloning and the original discussion on excess embryo’s. They seem to think that this is still about excess embryo’s, when it ceased being about that some time ago. If you would like to read about how a clone is created look up Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer - SCNT - another term created to remove the stigma of the term human cloning. Wikipedia has an article here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic_cell_nuclear_transfer

I have written to many different types of media about this, but have yet to have any response. I suspect most have not clearly understood the implications of this either, or do not consider it newsworthy. I’d encourage you to also consider how you might be able to raise awareness of this in the media. I have also contacted a number of women’s lobby groups. I have had to restrict myself to email due to time constraints, and know from a friend that some of the women’s lobby groups are not happy to be talked to about this from a male - one of them was quite abrupt to him, to put it mildly.

Please inform yourself about this and take whatever steps you can. The misinformation and misunderstanding on this issue is great.

Sorry for such a large amount of information - I hope it isn’t too overwhelming. It is the result of quite a bit of reading and communicating. I’m happy to attempt to answer any questions. But I am no health expert. Just someone who was concerned about this going forward in our country.

Erin Carter

Here are the email addresses
‘john.ajaka@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘robert.brown@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘tony.catanzariti@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘david.clarke@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘ian.cohen@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘rick.colless@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘catherine.cusack@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘office@smos.nsw.gov.au’; ‘greg.donnelly@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘amanda.fazio@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘marie.ficarra@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘michael.gallacher@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘jenny.gardiner@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘duncan.gay@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘kayee.griffin@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘sylvia.hale@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘don.harwin@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘office@hatzistergos.minister.nsw.gov.au’; ‘john.kaye@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘trevor.khan@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘charlie.lynn@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘macdonald.office@macdonald.minister.nsw.gov.au’; ‘gordon.moyes@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘F.Nile@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘edward.obeid@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘Robyn.Parker@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘melinda.pavey@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘greg.pearce@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘peter.primrose@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘lee.rhiannon@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘Christine.Robertson@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘Penny.Sharpe@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘roy.smith@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘henry.tsang@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘mick.veitch@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘lynda.voltz@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘helen.westwood@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘ian.west@parliament.nsw.gov.au’; ‘costa.office@minister.nsw.gov.au’; ‘sharon.armstrong@lands.nsw.gov.au’; ‘enquiries.roads@roozendaal.minister.nsw.gov.au’

Erin has some good information which I encourage you to look at if you have the time,

IMHO You can argue all you like about the embryo being the start of human development and should be protected. This really is the foundation of the issue.
You can also say that adult stem cell research has had proven results.

But I think our politicians have already heard this many times over. (Doesn’t hurt to tell them again though)

There is still much confusion amongst the general public and our politicians, about what this research involves and where it is leading.

Perhaps a way ahead to argue could be along these lines:
1) The Cloning Bill relies on eggs to be donated from IVF treatments (or altruistic donors etc).
2) There are not and will not be enough eggs for the research.
3) Pressure will be applied to relax the safeguards in the Bill to provide incentives to women to create excess eggs - eg discount IVF treatments or priority service.
4) Scientists will soon lobby government to use animal eggs to create animal/human hybrid embryos for research. In Britain, scientists have succeeded in this.

One MP has told me that this argument is not valid as there are currently safeguards against these things in the Bill, and it is this Bill that they are voting on. However it is not rocket science to see that this Bill paves the way for these things.

Rather than just being negative about the whole thing, we need to be empathetic toward the pursuit of cures and so should also be encouraging our politicians to fuel resources into better scientific research (such as adult stem cell research).

I encourage you to writea short letter clearly stating your views. BUT YOU WILL NEED TO BE QUICK.

Also - tell your friends, and encourage them to speak up. Most people are horrified when they find out what the issues are. Good information is lacking.

Most importantly, please pray for our politicians, those who are debating against the Bill, that they would be persuasive, those who haven’t made up their minds that they would see what is right, and those who have, that their eyes will be opened.
Mike

The main thing is to send short e-mails, with whatever facts you include being accurate. It doesn’t have to be the model of grammar or even spelling (although it doesn’t hurt to take care).

The volume of letters and e-mails from different people is as important at this stage as what it is that you are saying.

I’m not going to suggest any form letter as I think it is counter-productive for eveything people writeto be the same, however, I suggest you take a couple of minutes to read through Erin’s and Mike’s posts above and summarize one or two points in your own words, assuming you agree with what is said.

I think appealing to the experience of what has happened down the track in other countries is a useful argument, and helps counter the “there are safeguards built in” response.

Mike and Erin,

Thank you for your posts and all the hard work, which makes a letter/email from the likes of me all the easier.

We must continue to bring this issue to God in prayer and to prayer for our politicians.

Angela

Yep, Agreed with Gordon, don’t just repeat word for word what I or others are saying - understand it for yourself and put in your own words. Mike

Here is a list of of upper house email addresses, copy and paste -

john.ajaka@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
robert.brown@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
tony.catanzariti@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
david.clarke@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
mailto:ian.cohen@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
rick.colless@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
catherine.cusack@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
office@smos.nsw.gov.au,
greg.donnelly@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
marie.ficarra@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
michael.gallacher@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
jenny.gardiner@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
duncan.gay@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
kayee.griffin@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
mailto:sylvia.hale@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
don.harwin@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
office@hatzistergos.minister.nsw.gov.au,
john.kaye@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
trevor.khan@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
charlie.lynn@parliament.nsw.gov.au ,
macdonald.office@macdonald.minister.nsw.gov.au,
gordon.moyes@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
F.Nile@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
Robyn.Parker@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
melinda.pavey@parliament.nsw.gov.au ,
greg.pearce@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
peter.primrose@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
lee.rhiannon@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
Christine.Robertson@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
mailto:Penny.Sharpe@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
roy.smith@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
henry.tsang@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
mick.veitch@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
lynda.voltz@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
mailto:helen.westwood@parliament.nsw.gov.au,
ian.west@parliament.nsw.gov.au

19/6/2007

To the Honourable the President and Members of the Legislative Council of New South Wales,

I am writing to express my opposition to therapeutic cloning for the purposes of embryonic stem cell research. It is A Very Bad Idea to create human beings solely to harvest their genetic material for the benefit of other human beings. This is a step in a direction that we ought not take.

Yours respectfully,
Craig Schwarze

24 Trafalgar St
Annandale, 2038

Craig,
Your post listing the emails is not the complete list, there are 42 of them.
Erins list is more thorough
(except Matthew Mason-Cox, who can be faxed on 9230 3597)
and from a conversation I have had with him
it would be helpful to make that extra effort to print up your emails and fax them to him.

Cheers,
Mike