Truce needed in a dirty war

[Wise Young]

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_...%255E2,00.html

Truce needed in a dirty war
Comment by Deborah Hope
August 30, 2002

IT'S time to end the dirty war over embryonic stem-cell research.
Character assassination has no place in this debate, but critics of the legislation before federal parliament have stooped low in their personal attacks on Alan Trounson.

Over the past couple of days Professor Trounson, a passionate advocate for stem-cell science, has been accused of lying, of misleading MPs on the promise of embryonic stem-cell research and of peddling false hope to the sick and vulnerable.

On an objective assessment of the facts, he is guilty only of political naivete and over-enthusiasm for his cause.

As he keeps repeating, his primary motivation in advocating the research is achieving cures for people suffering horrible diseases.

The brouhaha over his description of embryonic germ cells as embryonic stem cells is a diversion from the decision to be made -- do Australians want to use spare doomed IVF embryos for a possible revolution in medical science, or do we want to throw them out with the garbage? Professor Trounson has defended his use of language adequately, and the debate should now move forward.

He should perhaps have listened more carefully to recent advice from federal cabinet minister Ian Macfarlane, who said critics of embryonic research would aggressively manipulate the debate to score points.

In a Melbourne speech last week, Mr Macfarlane described his disbelief at watching an audience "swallow" the argument, put forward by a prominent doctor, that cloning and unfettered experimentation on embryos could occur under the bill being considered. As he pointed out, this is blatantly untrue.

Meanwhile, a scientific team from King's College in London has announced it has succeeded in growing Britain's first human embryonic stem cells from spare IVF embryos since British laws were passed allowing the work to proceed.

The British Medical Research Council is now preparing plans to establish a national stem-cell bank to hold adult and embryonic stem cells for research.

Like Galileo centuries earlier, Professor Trounson is being excoriated for pioneering a frontier of science. It's time for the debate to return to matters of substance.