Day: June 6, 2002

Living in a Science Fiction Novel: Inheritance Rights for Posthumously Conceived Children

When I read articles, like this Seattle Times piece, I can’t help but think I’m a minor character trapped in a science fiction novel.

Victoria Chappell wants her daughter Sayana Chappell-Lombard to receive benefits from the Social Security Administration since her father died of brain cancer in 1994. The problem is that Sayana was born in May 1996, thanks to the wonders of in vitro fertilization.

According to the article, most states are moving to recognize inheritance rights to estates for children in Sayana’s situation, though the article doesn’t mention how such laws deal with the possibly long time frames. How do you divided up an estate when you have hundreds of potential heirs frozen at a sperm bank?

The Social Security Administration also generally recognizes inheritance rights for married couples, but Sayana’s case is trickier because her parents were never married and the SSA has yet to decide about her case.

Source:

Benefits in limbo for in-vitro child of deceased dad. Nancy Bartley, Seattle Times, June 3, 2002.

Shreveport Sued Over Arrest of PETA Activists

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the city of Shreveport, La., over the May 29, 2001 arrest of three animal rights protesters and the threatened arrest of a fourth protester. All were part of a protest organized by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals against the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

The arrest occurred when Cynthia Lieberman prepared to enter a cage wearing a skimpy outfit and painted tiger stripes. Lieberman was charged with obscenity, while she and two other activists were also charged with obstructing public passage. A fourth activist was threatened with arrest but not taken into custody.

In March 2002, Shreveport City Judge LaLeisha Walker struck down the charges saying that Lieberman’s protest would not have met the definition of obscene and that the protesters could not have been obstructing public passage since they were arrested before they were able to begin their protest.

Louisiana ACLU executive director Joe Cook notes that although police arrested the animal rights activists, they allowed representatives of the circus to remain in the area and gave leaflets and free circus tickets to the officers which were later turned in as evidence.

Source:

ACLU sues over arrests in animal-rigths demonstration. Associated Press, June 2, 2002.

Ah, To Be a Bear in Bulgaria

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Matthew Brunwasser wrote an interesting article a few days ago about efforts to help dancing bears in Bulgaria. Dancing bears are illegal in Bulgaria, but the government does not strictly enforce the ban.

Enter Four Paws, a European animal organization that in November 2000 built a square-kilometer park in Belitsa, Bulgaria, for the bears. It buys bears from entertainers for about $5,000 per bear and retires them to the park.

All of which has some in Belitsa wondering about the priorities of European donors. Each bear eats about $200/month in food, whereas the per capita monthly income of Belitsa residents is a mere $120/month.

Belitsa resident Kostadin Trichov told Brunwasser, “There’s a saying in town: ‘There’s nothing better than to be a bear in Belitsa.'”

Bulgarian filmmaker Assen Valdimirov has produced a documentary about the park called “Of Bears and Men” and complained to Brunwasser,

The people in town are shocked, all of Bulgaria is shocked. It’s ridiculous to spend such money for six bears here. They are more horrified by the conditions of the animals than the people.

For his part, Four Paws’ Josef Pfabigan says that the poverty in Belitsa is not his problem.

It’s not my business to think about money. My business is a project for animal protection. Bears are the point. For the people in the region it’s about business.

According to Brunwasser, the bear park has changed attitudes in Bulgaria about bear dancing, but Bulgarians may be getting a mixed message. He reports that one couple took the $5,000 they received from selling their bear and promptly bought a monkey to use for street busking.

Source:

Dancing bears get help, but not Bulgaria’s poor. Matthew Brunwasser, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 3, 2002.

Researchers Demonstrate Therapeutic Cloning in Cows

Researchers at Advanced Cell Technology and Children’s Hospital in Boston this week announced they had for the first time managed to use therapeutic cloning to produce working tissues that were successfully implanted in cows.

In the experiment, researchers used cells from an adult cow to create a cloned embryos. The embryos was then implanted in a host cow where it grew for several weeks before researchers harvested stem cells from the cloned embryos (this is a step that would be unnecessary in human beings, since human stem cells can be grown in the lab, while no one has yet figured out how to grow cow stem cells in the lab).

The stem cells were then placed on scaffolds in a laboratory which caused them to grow into a few dozen miniature kidneys and patches of heart tissues. The miniature kidneys and heart tissue were then transplanted back into the cows that the adult cells were taken from.

The result was that the implants were not rejected by the cows’ immune system, since the implants were genetically identical to the cows’ existing tissues, and the tissues and organ functioned properly. The heart tissue grew onto the heart, and the miniature kidneys functioned properly including producing a urine-like fluid.

“This study is proof of principle that therapeutic cloning can be used to create tissues without any threat of reaction,” Dr. Anthony Atala of Children’s Hospital told The Boston Globe.

“These results bode well for the future of human therapeutic cloning,” Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology told The Scotsman. “Cloning could theoretically provide a limitless supply of cells and organs for any type of regenerative therapy.

Sources:

Researchers implant cloned cow tissues. Raja Mishra, Boston Globe, June 3, 2002.

Cloned embryo success for US scientists. Tara Womersley, The Scotsman, June 3, 2002.

Researchers say therapeutic cloning experiments show promise in cows. Paul Elias, Associated Press, June 2, 2002.