Editor:

Nisbet and Mooney urge that to further scientific agendas scientists must “frame” the social ramifications of their pursuits so as to limit public controversy (Science, Policy Forum: “Framing Science,” Vol. 316, p 56, 6 April 2007). Certainly, framing of issues is a way for different sides to put forth varying interpretations of scientific issues. In framing one of their examples, however, the authors themselves “pare[d] down complex issues” and gave inappropriate emphasis to a mistaken assumption that the debate about embryo stem cells (ESC) is between only two frames: those seeking cures and those opposing the destruction of embryos. Importantly, there is a crucial third issue too often overlooked, one that is “framed” in terms of the risks to women’s health from the extraction of eggs needed for this research. The authors recognize that some “may consider [their] proposal too Orwellian”. To avoid this very rejoinder, consideration must be given to how and when “framing” the issues crosses into occluding them. In the interest of fairness and full public discourse, we invite Science readers to visit www.handsoffourovaries.com and learn for themselves how best to frame controversies surrounding ESC research.

HandsOffOurOvaries Board of Directors:

Abby Lippman, Ph.D.
M. L. Tina Stevens, Ph.D.
Jennifer Lahl, B.S.N., M.A.
Diane Beeson, Ph.D.
Emilia Ianeva ,Ph.D., J. D.
Josephine Quintavalle

Dear Speaker of the House Pelosi:

HandsOffOurOvaries is a project of Every Woman First, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to women’s health issues as they relate to biotechnology. As you move forward to support stem cell research, we ask that you refrain from seeking enabling legislation or funding for cloning research, which will jeopardize women’s health.

Poorly understood is the fact that acquiring the eggs necessary for the cloning portion of embryonic stem cell (ESC) research stands to harm women in ways that its promoters erroneously dismiss as inconsequential. Because women have been undergoing egg extraction as part of in vitro fertilization (IVF) for two decades a common presumption is that the procedure is safe. But this misapprehension prevails only because IVF remains largely unregulated: tracking and reporting on the health of the women who undergo egg extraction is not required. However, grassroots women’s groups, e.g. Our Bodies, Ourselves, have been monitoring the field and are gravely concerned both by what they have found and by cloning enthusiasts’ evident disregard of women’s complaints and experiences. Sadly, this inattention is part of a pattern of disregard in women’s health care. The ill effects of DES and hormone replacement therapy are two prominent examples of hormonal interventions that caused iatrogenic illness owing to their incautious and widespread application in advance of systematic study.

Before surgically extracting their eggs, women are given powerful drugs. Lupron, commonly used to shut down a woman’s ovaries before stimulating them to produce many times more the normal number of eggs has not been approved for this purpose, but rather is used “off label.” Twenty-five deaths and thousands of complaints regarding this drug have yet to be investigated by the FDA. Antagon, another drug that has been approved for such use has no long term safety data. Studies on stimulatory drugs provide serious warnings. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine mild Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS), e.g. ovarian enlargement, nausea, vomiting and abdominal discomfort occurs in 10-20% of cycles. Severe OHSS includes a wide range of serious consequences including loss of fertility, kidney or multiple organ failure, and death. Estimates of the frequency of severe OHSS vary widely, but are as high as five per cent of women who undergo the procedure. Younger women, those whose eggs are viewed as most desirable for cloning research, are most vulnerable to severe OHSS. Six women are known to have died of OHSS in the UK where reporting is required. Moreover, existing studies, which show mixed results, are inadequate to asses more long-term but very serious cancer risks.

The politics of abortion has hijacked clear thinking on the issue of embryo stem cell research. In order to liberate full disclosure of the issues from the log-jam of abortion discourse, proChoice and proLife feminists from around the world joined forces to create HandsOffOurOvaries, a safe-zone in which together we draw attention to the disregard of women’s lives demonstrated by the push for egg procurement. The science, social science, and health care professionals who joined to form HandsOffOurOvaries cordially request a meeting with you and your staff to clarify how ESC cloning research compromises women’s health and to discuss our call for a global moratorium on egg procurement for research purposes.

We look forward to hearing from you and hope that you will also visit www.handsoffourovaries.com for more information.

Sincerely,

Diane Beeson, Ph.D. (USA),
Tina Stevens, Ph.D. (USA),
Jennifer Lahl, RN, MA. (USA),
Emilia Ianeva, Ph.D. (Bulgaria/USA)
Abby Lippman, Ph.D., (Canada)
Josephine Quintavalle (United Kingdom)

San Ramon, CA (PRWEB) September 28, 2006–Concern over health risks to women providing eggs for cloning research — including the possibility of ovarian cancer — is so high that a growing global grassroots effort is taking shape seeking to empower women around the world to organize and speak out.

HandsOff Chair, Diane Beeson, just back from a conference in Korea sponsored by WomenLink said, “Women everywhere, from the US to Korea to Australia, are organizing to demand that their health not be sacrificed in the pursuit of scientific stardom, patents, and the quest for new technologies that may or may not turn out to provide treatments for others.” Missouri is a focus for this movement since, come November, citizens there will vote on the state’s stem cell research initiative which enables egg harvesting.

In Korea, women have filed damage claims against the government and Seoul medical centers on behalf of victims of egg extraction who were misled into believing the procedures were safe. Women’s health advocates and activists from the US, UK and India gathered in Korea to hear graphic evidence of damage suffered by women undergoing egg extraction. Meanwhile, HandsOff is planning demonstrations in Missouri as well as in Australia, where women are fighting to keep that nation’s ban on cloning in place.

What the current debate fails to clarify is that the proposed cloning research requires women’s eggs — lots of them.  Investigators want to remove the nuclei from women’s eggs and replace them with nuclei from cells taken from those with various diseases.  Stem cells derived from the resulting clonal embryos may teach researchers something about disease, possibly suggest cures.  The promise of cures may never be realized:  no one yet has derived stem cells from a human clonal embryo; those derived from animals are causing tumors.  Success is a gamble. Sadly, making women sick is almost a guarantee.

# # #

The standards suggested by the National Academy of Sciences and the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine are clearly too stringent for cloning researchers and their quest for human eggs. Insoo Hyun’s commentary, “Fair Payment or Undue Inducement?,” attempts to throw them a lifeline: since not enough women are donating eggs “altruistically,” devise standards that justify buying them.

The US Department of Health and Human Services IRB Guidebook requires IRBs to “determine that the risks are reasonable in relation to benefits to subjects, if any, and the importance of the knowledge to be gained.” The fact that the risks to women who provide eggs — infertility, organ failure, reproductive cancers and even death — could be considered reasonable only underscores the moral hazards of allowing ethical standards concerning egg harvesting to be promulgated by those wishing to use the eggs experimentally to produce patentable processes and products.

Another death during egg harvesting has just been reported in the UK. We wonder to what extent additional tragedies of this sort would influence the level of compensation Hyun and his colleagues would set for procurement of eggs. While Hyun acknowledges that payment for eggs may exploit vulnerable populations, he can only offer ethical review boards as protection. It is clear, however, that such boards, however appropriate for implementing regulations, have no warrant to render sociological judgments. Similarly, the claim that these review bodies would not set a price that condones commodification of human body parts rings hollow from someone seeking to free up the egg supply by a market-based remedy.

Let’s be honest. There is only one reason to pay for eggs: science-entrepreneurs desperately want them and few women are gullible enough to submit to the arduous and dangerous process of providing them for nothing. Now the only problem is to decide how little women can be offered to accept serious risks to their health and even their lives. Hands Off Our Ovaries, an international, grassroots project, calls for a moratorium on egg donation for research. We maintain that those who stand to net financial gain and career advancement from this use of women’s bodies – whether or not any cures are ever developed – must not be the ones to create guidelines for the harvesting of women’s eggs.

Signed:

Hands Off Our Ovaries, Board of Directors:
M. L. Tina Stevens, Ph.D.
Diane Beeson, Ph.D.
Emilia Ianeva, Ph.D.
Jennifer Lahl, R.N., M.A.,
Abby Lippman, Ph.D.
Josephine Quintavalle

Regarding: California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Medical and Ethical Standards Regulations, 17 Cal. Code of Regs. 100010-100130

Dear Members of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee (ICOC),

The recent CIRM draft regulations regarding egg “donation” which seek to legitimize procuring eggs for research from women undergoing IVF is ill-advised. Women undergoing IVF are in a vulnerable position both psychologically and physically. Their health as well as the integrity of the IVF procedure should not be jeopardized by competing concerns unassociated with their desire to have a child. Suggesting regulations that would facilitate acquiring excessive numbers of eggs from women undergoing IVF only serves to underscore that the aims of SCNT advocates are at odds with women’s health and well-being. The most ethical position for the ICOC to adopt is a moratorium on egg donation until such time as independent scientific research establishes that it will cause neither short nor long term harm to women. Medical practitioners should not be asked to compromise their responsibilities to protect their patients’ health.

Respectfully,

The Board of Directors of HandsOffOurOvaries

Diane Beeson Ph.D.
Emilia Ianeva Ph.D.
Jennifer Lahl B.S.N., M.A.
Abby Lippman Ph.D.
Josephine Quintavalle
M.L. Tina Stevens Ph.D.