Is the Clone Party is Over? Dolly takes a dive.
November 17th 2007 15:33
Is the Clone Party is Over? Dolly takes a dive.
Well it was fun bit of pulp science fiction while it lasted. Therapeutic Cloning was the story that had every embryologist scrambling for application grants. The wave of enthusiasm was such that politicians forced urgent debates in the houses of parliament to pass legislation. $34 million was granted to one prominent scientist in Melbourne to do embryonic stem cell research. Elsewhere around the world the race was on as each developed nation suddenly found that scientist were making claims about what Embryonic Stem Cell could potentially do. There was Christopher Reeve supporting claims from his motorized wheel chair and Michael Fox on television showing how hard Parkinson’s is. The rhetorical question that was thrown up at any critic was: How could you be so uncompassionate as to deny these people hope?
The problem with leading questions is that they presuppose the answer in the asking. Such questions are not asking anything but are instead telling people that opposing a view point is wrong purely because you say so. Presumptions of people intent cannot be demonstrated by such a fraudulent test. Compassion like other emotional words is subject to use and in many cases abuse. It is a word that can pull on the heart strings to do ‘good’ or to do something incredibly stupid. Snake-oil salesmen have known this from the dawn of time.
In the 1950’s the so called ‘compassionate’ way to deal with some mental illness was perform an icepick lobotomy on the patient. Parents fearing that their child would never be cure were signed their children up to have a surgical icepick punched through the inside of the eye socket and into the brain. By the 1970’s this technique was discredited as being both ineffective at curing the original illness and the lowest form of cruelty. In the sixties Thalidomide was considered to be the compassionate answer for pregnant women who were suffering. Today the mention of the drug creates a sense of horror at the numbers of disfigurement it had caused. These may seem like extreme example but the message is the same: what someone may claim to be a compassionate answer can sometimes be driven by personal ambitions and greed.
The sales pitch for passing the Therapeutic Cloning Laws was on message all the time. The scientists promised cures for every disease known: from paralysis, to heart failure, to brain damage. The next message was that only Human Embryonic Stem Cells could deliver these answers. The third claim was that we had to hurry or someone in another country would make the discoveries and we would miss out. The final claim was that our best scientists would be recruited to jobs overseas. The last two claims are meaningless until the first two claims can be verified but to date no one has been able to show any therapeutic benefit to come from human embryonic stem cells. What may have looked like hope turned out to be false hope as a Korean scientist faked the results of his testing. A similar problem occurred in Melbourne with a government funded project where the testing results were found to be questionable and therefore invalid. The investigation of who is to blame in this case is still continuing so I leave it for now. However the funding is now on hold.
The most recent news about Cloning comes from the scientist who cloned the first sheep called Dolly. Dolly the Sheep made world headlines as it fired up the possible debate about human cloning. In a recent statement the scientist who cloned Dolly has stated that he is abandoning any further investigation into Cloning for the purpose of Human Embryonic Stem Cell research. Professor Wilmut has cited that the technique is not as effective as a rival method that does not use Human Embryos developed in Japan.
The technique developed by Professor Yamanake in Japan used genetically modified adult cells to create stem cells.
Professor Wilmut was quoted as saying, “I decided a few weeks ago not to pursue nuclear transfer [the method used to create Dolly the sheep],” and he admitted the new method “was easier to accept socially.” He also said, “The work which was described from Japan of using a technique to change cells from a patient directly into stem cells without making an embryo has got so much more potential.”
The potential to end the reason for Embryonic Stem Cell Research may have arrived via Japan but it is Prof Wilmut that makes this such a significant move. His abandonment of the technique that he developed indicates a shift in scientific thinking that will reverberate around the world.
The ramification for the people who were quick to demand Embryonic Stem Cell Research as being urgent and essential is equally significant. Were they backing the wrong horse for reason and agendas that had little to with science but more to do with misplaced emotions? Compassion is a word that can be misused but at the end of the scientists must always rely upon science.
Dolly may have just got voted off the island
Well it was fun bit of pulp science fiction while it lasted. Therapeutic Cloning was the story that had every embryologist scrambling for application grants. The wave of enthusiasm was such that politicians forced urgent debates in the houses of parliament to pass legislation. $34 million was granted to one prominent scientist in Melbourne to do embryonic stem cell research. Elsewhere around the world the race was on as each developed nation suddenly found that scientist were making claims about what Embryonic Stem Cell could potentially do. There was Christopher Reeve supporting claims from his motorized wheel chair and Michael Fox on television showing how hard Parkinson’s is. The rhetorical question that was thrown up at any critic was: How could you be so uncompassionate as to deny these people hope?
The problem with leading questions is that they presuppose the answer in the asking. Such questions are not asking anything but are instead telling people that opposing a view point is wrong purely because you say so. Presumptions of people intent cannot be demonstrated by such a fraudulent test. Compassion like other emotional words is subject to use and in many cases abuse. It is a word that can pull on the heart strings to do ‘good’ or to do something incredibly stupid. Snake-oil salesmen have known this from the dawn of time.
In the 1950’s the so called ‘compassionate’ way to deal with some mental illness was perform an icepick lobotomy on the patient. Parents fearing that their child would never be cure were signed their children up to have a surgical icepick punched through the inside of the eye socket and into the brain. By the 1970’s this technique was discredited as being both ineffective at curing the original illness and the lowest form of cruelty. In the sixties Thalidomide was considered to be the compassionate answer for pregnant women who were suffering. Today the mention of the drug creates a sense of horror at the numbers of disfigurement it had caused. These may seem like extreme example but the message is the same: what someone may claim to be a compassionate answer can sometimes be driven by personal ambitions and greed.
The sales pitch for passing the Therapeutic Cloning Laws was on message all the time. The scientists promised cures for every disease known: from paralysis, to heart failure, to brain damage. The next message was that only Human Embryonic Stem Cells could deliver these answers. The third claim was that we had to hurry or someone in another country would make the discoveries and we would miss out. The final claim was that our best scientists would be recruited to jobs overseas. The last two claims are meaningless until the first two claims can be verified but to date no one has been able to show any therapeutic benefit to come from human embryonic stem cells. What may have looked like hope turned out to be false hope as a Korean scientist faked the results of his testing. A similar problem occurred in Melbourne with a government funded project where the testing results were found to be questionable and therefore invalid. The investigation of who is to blame in this case is still continuing so I leave it for now. However the funding is now on hold.
The most recent news about Cloning comes from the scientist who cloned the first sheep called Dolly. Dolly the Sheep made world headlines as it fired up the possible debate about human cloning. In a recent statement the scientist who cloned Dolly has stated that he is abandoning any further investigation into Cloning for the purpose of Human Embryonic Stem Cell research. Professor Wilmut has cited that the technique is not as effective as a rival method that does not use Human Embryos developed in Japan.
The technique developed by Professor Yamanake in Japan used genetically modified adult cells to create stem cells.
Professor Wilmut was quoted as saying, “I decided a few weeks ago not to pursue nuclear transfer [the method used to create Dolly the sheep],” and he admitted the new method “was easier to accept socially.” He also said, “The work which was described from Japan of using a technique to change cells from a patient directly into stem cells without making an embryo has got so much more potential.”
The potential to end the reason for Embryonic Stem Cell Research may have arrived via Japan but it is Prof Wilmut that makes this such a significant move. His abandonment of the technique that he developed indicates a shift in scientific thinking that will reverberate around the world.
The ramification for the people who were quick to demand Embryonic Stem Cell Research as being urgent and essential is equally significant. Were they backing the wrong horse for reason and agendas that had little to with science but more to do with misplaced emotions? Compassion is a word that can be misused but at the end of the scientists must always rely upon science.
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Comment by Nonymous
Philosophy Blog
Don't have too much to say on this topic, but why do you believe "His abandonment of the technique that he developed indicates a shift in scientific thinking that will reverberate around the world?" I mean, just because one scientist shifts their research focus, so what? It doesn't mean that embryonic research is unfruitful. It doesn't invalidate any results so far obtained from that research.
Incidentally, it's true that the technique used to generate Dolly was very difficult... Involved fiddly stuff like using electricity to burn the nucleus out of the mammary cell of the adult sheep. I'll probably blog on this topic one of these days if I ever find the time; have been preparing a post on it for a while now. Can't quite remember the stats, but he did have to try hundreds of time before he got Dolly.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Thanks for your comments.
I often like to have a sweeping statement at the end of my posts. makes me feel that effort is worth it.
Funny thing is a few months ago I finshed preparing a multimedia presentation for a university professor on the ES cells. We have been friends and my clients for years.
It is interesting to see the way they actually approach scientic discussions and publications.
The scandal in Korea definitly shook the industry on the grant application side. Documents were been double checked. A similar scandal in Melbourne was reported in the papers but fallout has happened yet. Something about dodgy testing result being passed as accurate and true before applying for a grant. I don't want to name names in a public forum until the matter is settled and all the fact are out in the public.
So when I talk about reverberation you ust also consider how this will effect the grant selection process.
In that I can only make an educated guess but I will not know for sure.
I look forward to you post and see how you tackle this complicated subject.