Fed: Abbott using hysteria in stem cell debate: Washer

AAP General News (Australia)
08-21-2006
Fed: Abbott using hysteria in stem cell debate: Washer

CANBERRA, Aug 21 AAP - A Liberal backbencher has accused the federal health minister
of spreading hysteria and misinformation in the debate over expanding stem cell research.

Health Minister Tony Abbott, a strong opponent of so-called therapeutic cloning, lashed
out at scientists yesterday, accusing them of peddling false hope to sufferers of chronic
diseases without offering convincing evidence.

They were some of Mr Abbott's strongest comments on the issue as MPs head towards a
conscience vote on overturning the four-year-old ban on therapeutic cloning - the creation
of embryos to produce stem cells.

West Australian Liberal MP Mal Washer, a former GP, today rejected Mr Abbott's outburst,
saying the minister had done himself a disservice.

"There's a lot of inaccuracies, misinformation and the usual hysteria you get generated
against something that's pretty simple," Dr Washer told ABC radio.

"I think if you don't have a reasonable argument, you tend to run to the irrational
and hysteria and the scare tactics."

Dr Washer also dismissed Mr Abbott's assertion that therapeutic cloning was creating
human life only to destroy it.

"We're not creating human life," he said.

"You can't have human life without implantation into a uterus and there's no intention
of doing that and it's illegal.

"If some screwball was to do that, that wouldn't work - it'd abort anyway so, I mean,
that's not human life.

"I don't know what he means by human life. I think that's frankly confused."

Mr Abbott also also described Mr Abbott's warning of the creation of possible human-animal
hybrids as "sensationalist".

"Remembering people walk around with pig valves in their heart and we grow most of
our vaccines, live vaccines, on egg protein," he said.

"So that's not new, that's not unusual and that's very reasonable."

Two senators are preparing private members' bills that aim to end the ban on therapeutic
cloning - Democrat Natasha Stott Despoja and Liberal Kay Patterson, a former health minister.

Dr Washer believes Senator Patterson's bill would have the greatest chance of success
and would receive even more support than the bill which stripped Mr Abbott of his ability
to ban the abortion drug RU486.

"I think we'll have more people vote for this bill than we had for RU486," he said.

"I think most people are very concerned with the chronic diseases we're now confronted
with about trying to lift barriers to try to achieve good science progress to either treat
these more appropriately or cure them."

He urged Senator Patterson and Senator Stott Despoja to work together on a single bill.

"At the end of the day, what is the most important thing is to win this."

Cabinet rejected an expert committee's recommendation to end the ban in June, but Prime
Minister John Howard bowed to backbench pressure a week ago and promised his MPs a conscience
vote should any legislation come to parliament.

AAP rp/it/sd

KEYWORD: STEMCELL WASHER

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