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PR: Will UCC Academics Debate Experts?
11.02.2009
A leading pro-life group has called on UCC academics to “have the courage of their convictions” and debate two top international experts on whether embryonic stem cell research should go ahead in UCC. Youth Defence said that UCC President, Dr Michael Murphy, and law lecturer Dr Deirdre Madden, were “backing off from the challenge to debate the ethics and validity of embarking on research on human embryonic stem cell lines, despite the fact that both academics were instrumental in dragging the university, and the taxpayer, down an unethical and indefensible research route.”
The proposed debate will take place at a major seminar on stem cells and ethics in science in UCC on February 17th. Dr Deirdre Madden is a long-time supporter of embryo research and cloning.
Special guest speakers at the seminar include Wesley Smith, the award-winning author and ethicist who champions ethical adult stem cell research and strongly opposes research on human embryos. He lists his occupation as “trouble-maker” on his blog (www.wesleyjsmith.com), and is a lively and much-sought after debater and commentator. (See more on Wesley Smith below). Mr Smith will arrive in Ireland in the week before the seminar and is available for interview/comment. Also available is Dr David Prentice, an internationally-recognized expert on stem cells and cloning, who was selected by the U.S. President's Council on Bioethics to write their comprehensive review of ethical adult stem cell research. His defense of Adult Stem Cell Treatments with extensive literature documentation was published by Science in January 2007.
The seminar is being organised by Youth Defence in collaboration with Students for Life in UCC and coincides with a major new €60,000 advertising and information campaign launched by Youth Defence this week. Sixty-four billboards (see below) are the centrepiece of the campaign, which hopes to swamp Cork with information raising public awareness regarding lethal research on human embryos, and seeks to involve the public in opposing the proposed research in UCC.
Last October the governing body of University College Cork voted by 16 to 15 to effectively allow embryonic stem cell research. The decision was described as “deplorable and indefensible” by Youth Defence at the time.
An invitation to the seminar has been issued to the Minister Education and Science, Batt O’Keefe, who is also a local TD for Cork North West. .
The campaign also involves a new and comprehensive information and lobbying leaflet, a pro-life seminar in UCC, Maynooth and other venues, a media campaign, a door-to-door canvass to encourage lobbying, a drive to facilitate alumni who wish to register their protests, regular information stands, a new information-packed website, and more. Its core messages are that the human embryo is deserving of full protection; that research on human embryos have not produced one cure; and that treatments for more than 70 medical conditions have been successfully developed using adult stem cells.
End
Notes for editors/producers
WESLEY SMITH
Award winning author Wesley J. Smith is a special consultant for the Center for Bioethics and Culture. In May 2004, because of his work in bioethics, he was named by the National Journal as one of the nation’s top expert thinkers in bioengineering. In 2008, the Human Life Foundation named him a Great Defender of Life for his work against assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Smith left the full time practice of law in 1985 to pursue a career in writing and public advocacy. He is the author or coauthor of eleven books.
His book Forced Exit: Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide and the New Duty to Die (1997, Times Books), a broad-based criticism of the assisted suicide/euthanasia movement has become a classic in anti-euthanasia advocacy and is now in its third edition published by Encounter Books in 2006. Smith’s Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America, a warning about the dangers of the modern bioethics movement, was named one of the Ten Outstanding Books of the Year and Best Health Book of the Year for 2001 (Independent Publisher Book Awards).
Smith’s most recently published book is Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World, in which he explores the morality, science, and business aspects of human cloning, stem cell research, and genetic engineering.
He formerly collaborated with Ralph Nader, co-authoring four books with consumer advocate.
Smith has published hundreds of articles and opinion columns on issues such as the importance of being human (human exceptionalism), assisted suicide, bioethics, the morality of human cloning, legal ethics, and public affairs. His writing has appeared nationally and internationally, including in Newsweek, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, The Weekly Standard, National Review, The Age (Australia), Western Journal of Medicine, and the American Journal of Bioethics. He has also been published in regional publications throughout the nation and internationally in newspapers in the UK, Italy, Australia, and Canada.
Throughout his career in public advocacy, Smith has appeared on well over a thousand television and radio talk/interview programs, including such national programs as ABC Nightline, Good Morning America, Larry King Live, CNN Crossfire, CNN World Report, the CBS Evening News, Coast to Coast, the Dennis Prager syndicated radio show, the Mike Gallagher syndicated radio show, Afternoons with Al Kresta, EWTN, CSPAN-Book TV, Fox News Channel, and CNN Talk Back Live. He has appeared internationally on Voice of America, CNN International, and programs originating in Great Britain (BBC), Australia (ABC), Canada (CBC), New Zealand, Germany, China, and Mexico.
Smith is often called upon by members of legislative and executive branches of government to advise on issues within his fields of expertise. He has testified as an expert witness in front of federal and state legislative committees, and has counseled government leaders internationally about matters of mutual concern.
Smith is an international lecturer and public speaker, appearing frequently at political, university, medical, legal, disability rights, bioethics, religious, and community gatherings across the United States, Europe, Canada, South Africa, and Australia.
DAVID PRENTICE
Dr. David Prentice is Senior Fellow for Life Sciences at Family Research Council. Up to July 2004 he had spent almost 20 years as Professor of Life Sciences, Indiana State University, and Adjunct Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine.
He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Kansas, and was at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Texas Medical School-Houston before joining Indiana State University, where he served as Acting Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences, Assistant Chair of Life Sciences, and was recognized with the University's Distinguished Teaching Award and Distinguished Service Award.
He is a Founding Member of Do No Harm: The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics, a Fellow of the Wilberforce Forum Council for Biotechnology Policy, a Fellow of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future, and an Advisory Board Member for the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity.
He received the 2007 Walter C. Randall Award in Biomedical Ethics from the American Physiological Society, given for promoting the honor and integrity of biomedical science through example and mentoring in the classroom and laboratory.
His research interests encompass aspects of cell growth; one major focus is adult stem cells. Dr. Prentice is an internationally-recognized expert on stem cells and cloning, and has testified before the U.S. Congress, numerous state legislatures, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the President's Council on Bioethics, European Parliament, British Parliament, Canadian Parliament, Australian Parliament, German Bundestag, French Senate, Swedish Parliament, the Vatican, and the United Nations.
Dr. Prentice was selected by the U.S. President's Council on Bioethics to write their comprehensive review of adult stem cell research. His defense of Adult Stem Cell Treatments with extensive literature documentation was published by Science in January 2007.
