Fran Bailey (McEwen, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I remember as if it was just yesterday the words of the medical specialists who informed me soon after the birth of my first daughter that her critical, life-threatening condition was due to something called long-segment Hirschsprung’s disease. Within the first few days of her life she underwent the first of many major operations, each designed to give her a better chance of survival throughout the early years of her life but none with the ability to cure her condition or to provide a positive prognosis. That was because Hirschsprung’s disease means that the ganglion cells that provide the nerves that enable both the large and small bowel to function by absorbing nutrients, and therefore to sustain life, are either not present or are nerveless and prevent the intestinal tract from functioning.

As a young mother I quickly learned to believe in the fighting spirit of my tiny daughter as time and time again she defied the predictions of the doctors and she survived. She taught me what hope really means. This was obviously a very distressing period for my family as we struggled daily to come to terms with not only the possibility of losing our daughter but also the sort of future she might have. Today that tiny little baby is a successful and inspiring young woman with a feisty and determined nature and a zest for life that few of us could ever hope to achieve. But life has not been easy for her and she will continue to face and overcome many challenges in the future.

My daughter was born into a world where man had already landed on the moon, where jets could fly at speeds that broke the sound barrier, where telecommunications had been developed and miniaturised to such an extent that the world was just one global village, where drugs had been developed to eradicate diseases like polio and tuberculosis and where antibiotics were commonplace. When I asked my daughter’s specialists why there was not a treatment that could help her, they patiently explained to me that one day science may discover how to treat damaged human tissue. That day is now not far off if we allow our scientists, as do scientists in the United Kingdom, Sweden, some states in the USA, Israel, China and Singapore, to continue their research and to use not just adult and embryonic stem cells but also somatic cell nuclear transfer, known as SCNT. And that, of course, is what this debate is about here in this chamber today—whether to allow our scientists, under the most strict scientific, legal and ethical protocols, to develop SCNT to produce cells for research and, ultimately, for therapy.

There has been much debate about cloning technology and I want to state for the record that I do not under any circumstance condone the cloning of human beings, which must be developed from a fertilised egg, but I do support applying this technology to enable scientists to develop cells from an unfertilised egg that can be used to treat damaged or diseased tissue in humans.

This legislation, the Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction and the Regulation of Human Embryo Research Amendment Bill 2006, provides for the development of SCNT by using an unfertilised egg as an incubator for up to 14 days under the strictest regulations. The legislation that this House passed in 2002 allowed for the creation of human embryonic stem cell lines from fertilised human eggs that were surplus to the needs of IVF implantation, and they could never be implanted in a woman’s uterus. This legislation would allow the creation of human embryonic stem cells derived from an unfertilised human egg using the SCNT process, which would also never be allowed to be implanted in a woman’s uterus.

This legislation would allow our scientists to understand the causes of disease and to provide for a better quality of life by developing treatments for disease. Most importantly, it has the potential to enable our scientists to develop cures for diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, heart disease, motor neurone disease and many others, including Hirschsprung’s disease.

All those years ago when I had my daughter I never dreamt that one day I would have the opportunity to stand in our national parliament and vote to give our scientists the means to improve not just my daughter’s life but the lives of so many of our Australian citizens. It is with great hope that I support this legislation.

See this speech in context