Senate succumbs to 'con science'

The Senate vote for cloning is a victory for organised lying.

Brutal legislation, that permits the creation of human young as mere raw material for research, has been achieved by systematic scientific deception.

And even on the day of the vote, science lobbyists were deceiving the public by denying the most brutal aspect of this Bill – that it lets aborted baby girls be used as ‘mothers’ of cloned embryos (see the last Blog).

Some scientists have shown they are prepared to do ‘whatever it takes’ to get liberal legislation on cloning:

- Fairy tales about cloning being used to treat Alzheimer’s or diabetes in humans – when in truth all it does in animals is cause tumours and genetic damage.

- Continual denigration of the magnificent and ethical field of adult stem-cell science, in reality so superior to cloning for both research and treatment.

- Hiding from the public the fact that embryonic stem cells remain entirely unusable in humans, due to tumour formation, while adult stem cells are being safely used in over 1200 human trials.

- Playing word games to pretend that cloning just creates ‘cells’, when in fact it creates an entire living human embryo like any other, that could (if permitted) be born as a baby.

We have witnessed the hubris of scientists who do not want anybody, even the Parliament, telling them what they can and cannot research. As one senior scientist put it to me, ‘If you let them limit us on cloning, where will it stop?’

We have witnessed the shameful behaviour of scientists who – as another senior scientist confided - feel so starved of funding for research that they will compromise their professional integrity for a big new bucket of public money.

We have witnessed the timidity of scientists who know that their colleagues are falsifying the science for PR reasons, who will admit that privately but will not speak up for fear of rocking the scientific boat.

In contrast, we have seen honourable scientists like Prof TJ Martin, Prof Alan Mackay-Sim and Prof James Sherley challenging their colleagues to tell the scientific truth and maintain ethical standards for human research. Their efforts, in the face of organised lying by their colleagues, has been an inspiration.

There must be no further misplaced deference to lofty Professors and other snake-oil salesmen who distort both the science and the ethics of cloning in order to progress their radical agenda.

Our MPs must be more ruthlessly skeptical of these scientific lobbyists, more diligent in uncovering the true motives for cloning, more aware of the solid-gold science of adult stem cells, if they are not to be victims of ‘con science’ like their 34 upper house colleagues.