Feminists Join Pro-Lifers in Warning of Cloning Exploiting Women

No Patents for Inventions Involving Destruction of Embryos: EU Court

What is “Eggsploitation”?

Commentary: The Strange World of Assisted Reproductive Technology...

Feminists Join Pro-Lifers Warning of Cloning Exploiting Women

There is a dirty little secret behind cloning to obtain stem cells that no supporter ever wants to talk about.  If they do even acknowledge the secret it is quickly dismissed as a non-issue.

In reality, this secret is a rallying cry against cloning research for BOTH sides of the embryonic stem cell debates.  Which is probably exactly why supporters of therapeutic cloning (cloning to produce stem cells) refuse to bring it to light.

The secret is this: somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT,) better known as cloning, requires an enormous amount of eggs.  Human eggs, retrieved from young human females.  Your niece, your daughter, your granddaughter. And the procedure to get these eggs necessary for cloning is no walk in the park.

To retrieve the enormous amount of eggs needed for SCNT, many women have to undergo a difficult and dangerous procedure. 

First they are injected with drugs that stimulate their ovaries to produce multiple eggs.  This is called ovarian hyperstimulation.  The women then undergo surgery to retrieve the eggs produced. 

Depending on which drugs are used, as many as 10% of women will experience ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), a serious complication that includes enlargement of the ovaries and can cause permanent infertility and even death. 

OHSS may also cause blood clotting disorders and kidney damage.  Women who have undergone ovarian hyperstimulation may have increased risk of ovarian cancer.

The horror stories of the medical problems experienced by women who donated their eggs are numerous. (Three are documented in the following video from the film Eggsploitation.)

So support for cloning research is a de facto support for putting young women’s health and lives at risk.  This is the reality that supporters of cloning for stem cells don’t want you to know.

But some feminists are speaking out.  They realize that simply pursing this research puts vulnerable women at risk and if it is successful it will create an even more intense market for human eggs.  Three “pro-choice” feminists have written a letter to the editors of Nature in response to an article on cloning research. 

Here is the letter in its entirety:

     The demand for women’s eggs for research could soar alarmingly following news of a cloning technique that uses human oocytes to reprogram somatic cells to a state of pluripotency (S. Noggle et al. Nature 478, 70–75; 2011).

    The mean number of eggs given by each woman during the study was 16.9, with one donating 26 eggs. This is more than many fertility doctors would consider optimal and increases the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. The researchers do not say that they halted hormone treatment in cases of over-response, although they did stop it in under-responsive women.

    Noggle et al. rightly anticipated concerns that payment for eggs could encourage financially disadvantaged women to take risks they might otherwise avoid. But US$8,000, the amount paid by Noggle and colleagues, would be a temptation even to the well-off in these difficult economic times.

    Some argue that women should evaluate for themselves the risks and benefits of providing eggs for research. But informed consent depends on provision of accurate information. Even after years of egg harvesting for fertility treatment, the risks to women — especially from some of the drugs and hormones used — remain undercharacterized and poorly assessed, with inadequate follow-up and data collection.

Marcy Darnovsky, Center for Genetics and Society, Berkeley, California, USA;  Susan Berke Fogel, Pro-Choice Alliance for Responsible Research, Van Nuys, California, USA; Judy Norsigian, Our Bodies Ourselves, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Video: http://www.lifenews.com/2011/12/06/feminists-join-pro-lifers-warning-of-cloning-exploiting-women/
[Rebecca Taylor | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 12/6/11, http://www.lifenews.com/2011/12/06/feminists-join-pro-lifers-warning-of-cloning-exploiting-women/]

No Patents for Inventions Involving Destruction of Embryos: EU Court

Pro-life leaders are hailing a decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union released today [18 Oct 11] on the status of the human embryo.

In the important and closely-monitored judgment, the Court of Luxembourg has decided that an invention is excluded from being patented where the process requires either the prior destruction of human embryos or their use as a base material.

The case originally concerns a patent held by Oliver Brüstle since 1997, in relation to a process using embryonic stem cells in order to treat neurological diseases. The German Federal Court of Justice, hearing the case introduced by Greenpeace against Brüstle’s patent, referred the question to the Court of Justice concerning the interpretation of the “human embryo” mentioned in an EU directive on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions.

According to the directive, an invention is excluded from patentability when it “requires the prior destruction of human embryos or their use as base material, whatever the stage at which that takes.”

The question in the Brüstle case was whether the exclusion from patentability of the human embryo expressed in the Directive covers all stages of life from fertilisation of the ovum or whether other conditions must be met, for example that a certain stage of development must be reached.

Join a Facebook page to end abortion here.

In response to this question, the Court has decided that the Directive covers all stages of life. It provides a comprehensive definition for the human embryo, as an organism “capable of commencing the process of development of a human being” whether they are the result of fecundation, or the product of cloning.

Therefore, for the Court, “a non-fertilised human ovum into which the cell nucleus from a mature human cell has been transplanted and a non-fertilised human ovum whose division and further development have been stimulated by parthenogenesis must also be classified as a ‘human embryo’.”

The pro-life European Centre for Law and Justice has welcomed the decision.  “The proper protection of the human embryo requires that the human embryo is given a broad definition. This decision protects life and the human dignity at all stage of its early development,” said ECLJ Director Gregor Puppinck.

“One of its consequences will be to promote the more ethical fields of researches, mainly the research on adult stem cells. Financially, the research on embryos and embryonic stem cells will be less attractive without the ability to get patents in Europe.”
[18 Oct 2011, Westen,  http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/no-patents-for-inventions-involving-destruction-of-embryos-eu-court?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=45b98bd32f-LifeSiteNews_com_US_Headlines10_18_2011&utm_medium=email]



What is “Eggsploitation”?

The infertility industry in the United States has grown to a multi-billion dollar business.

What is its main commodity? Human eggs.

Young women all over the world are solicited by ads—via college campus bulletin boards, social media, online classifieds—offering up to $100,000 for their “donated” eggs, to “help make someone’s dream come true.”

But who is this egg donor? Is she treated justly? What are the short- and long-term risks to her health? The answers to these questions will disturb you . . .

The producer, writer and director of the film Eggsploitation, Jennifer Lahl, talked on a webcast about this topic, why pro-lifers should care, and what you can do about it!

Listen to the replay of the 5 October Webcast here: 

http://studentsforlife.org/eggsploitation/

Eggsploitation is a film which spotlights the booming business of human eggs told through the tragic and revealing stories of real women who became involved and whose lives have been changed forever.

Executive Producer, Director, and Writer Jennifer Lahl is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, hospital administrator, and senior-level nursing management with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s’ writings have appeared in various publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBC, PBS, and NPR, and called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address egg trafficking. She serves on the North American Editorial Board for Ethics and Medicine and the Board of Reference for Joni Eareckson Tada’s Institute on Disability. In 2009, Lahl was associate producer of the documentary film, Lines That Divide: The Great Stem Cell Debate, which was an official selection in the 2010 California Independent Film Festival. She made her writing and directing debut, producing the documentary film, Eggsploitation, which has sold in over 10 countries and is showing all over the U.S., since its August 2010 release.


Commentary: The Strange World of Assisted Reproductive Technology

So here’s the thing. If you’re looking for something to follow that’s strange, weird, and fascinating, forget reality TV or any other fiction.

Just look into the largely unregulated world of assisted reproductive technologies (ART).
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/10/17/the-strange-world-of-assisted-reproductive-technology/