|
How the Missouri Cloning Initiative Would Cause Serious Risks to Women’s Health
James S. Cole, Esq.*
The so-called Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative raises many concerns besides the obvious problem of cloning. One of the most serious concerns is the risk to women’s health that would be caused when the cloners induce women to donate egg cells for cloning.
Each woman who donates eggs is treated with massive dosages of hormones to induce ovulation of multiple eggs. This is known as “ovarian hyper-stimulation.” Ten or more eggs per woman is the goal. (Dr. David A. Prentice, Ph.D., Professor of Life Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine, Stem Cells and Cloning (Michael A. Palladino, ed.), p. 26 (Benjamin-Cummings/Pearson Education, San Francisco, 2002); Joe Carter, Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, Testimony Before Human Services Committee, Illinois General Assembly, 1/13/2006, found at www.cbhd.org/resources/-cloning/carter_2006-01-13.htm.)
What do women undergo in the process of donating eggs? A leading cloning researcher, Harry Griffin, Ph.D., associate director of Roslin Institute (where Dolly the sheep was cloned), says, “Egg donation is akin to bone marrow transplantation as far as how unpleasant the process is for the donor.” (“The Facts and Fiction of Cloning,” WebMD Articles, undated, found at www.medmutual.com.) Robert Lanza, medical director at Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., a genetics company, says, “The donation process takes an average of 56 hours in the clinic for hormone injections, frequent ultrasound imaging exams and tests for diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. Women also undergo psychological testing to determine their motives for donation, as well as a painful egg collection procedure.” (“Scientists in U.S. To Attempt Human Cloning South Koreans Faked,” Bloomberg.com, 4/13/2006, found at http://www.bloomberg.com.)
No one is sure what long-term health risks accompany egg cell harvesting, for no long-term studies have ever been performed in connection with harvesting eggs for in vitro fertilization. But even without thorough research, there are enough cases of personal injury to give one pause. In fact, an organization has recently been formed by physicians called “Hands Off Our Ovaries” to inform the American people and their legislators about these risks. (See www.handsoffourovaries.com on the Internet.) In testimony to Congress in March, 2006, one of the founders, Dr. Diane Beeson, Ph.D. stated, “The FDA currently has on file over 6000 complaints regarding Lupron [the drug commonly used in egg extraction], including 25 reported deaths.” (Testimony of Diane Beeson, Ph.D., Hearing on Stem Cell Research, House Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, March 7, 2006, available at www.handsoffourovaries.com site.)
Another witness from the same organization described the types of injuries from harvesting of egg cells as follows:
OHSS carries an increased risk of clotting disorders, kidney damage, and ovarian twisting. Ovarian stimulation in general has been associated with serious life threatening pulmonary conditions in FDA trials including thromboembolic events, pulmonary embolism, pulmonary infarction, cerebral vascular accident (stroke) and arterial occlusion with loss of a limb and death.
Risks of the egg retrieval procedure, although rare, include death, respiratory or cardiac arrest, brain damage, paraplegia, paralysis, loss of function of a limb or organ, hemorrhage, allergic reaction, and infection Bleeding or other injuries which occur during retrieval may require an invasive surgical procedure to correct and could affect future fertility.
(Memorandum of Dr. Suzanne Parisian, M.D., former Chief Medical Officer, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, February, 2005, submitted to Hearing on Stem Cell Research, House Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, March 7, 2006, available at www.handsoffourovaries.com site.)
The imperative to obtain large volumes of egg cells will inevitably lead to abuses. (See the related article, “The Missouri Cloning Initiative’s Illusory Limits on Paying Inducements to Women to Donate Human Eggs,” which contains a summary of the vast numbers that the cloners will need.) In the South Korean experiments that were falsely claimed in 2004 to have resulted in successful human cloning, women in the labs themselves as well as the associated universities were pressured into giving up egg cells. According to the journal, Science, “About one-fifth of the donors, many of whom weren't told of the risks, are now suffering side effects.” Science, “A chronology of Woo Suk Hwang's stem-cell research,” 02 February, 2006, found at http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051219/full/051219-3.html.) A coalition of 35 groups of women have sued the South Korean government for the injuries they received. (The Asia Times, Feb. 7, 2006.)
The cloners have included language in the Initiative that will insulate them from any such liability. (See the related article, “How the Missouri Cloning Initiative Gives Cloners Total Immunity From Lawsuits For Injuries.”) Thus, under the Initiative, any Missouri women who are injured in the manner of the Korean women will not have a chance to sue the cloners.
The cloners who sponsor the Initiative never speak about the numbers of eggs they will need, the procedures that are used to obtain them, the health risks that women must bear in giving egg cells, and their own immunity from any liability for the health problems they cause. Once the facts are known, citizens will understand why the cloners keep silent about these consequences of the Initiative.
_________________
*James S. Cole, J.D. Harvard Law School, is a practicing attorney in St. Louis and serves as General Counsel for Missouri Right to Life.