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ASRM BULLETIN
Volume 4, Number 18
May 6, 2002
Another Way to Express your Support of SCNT for Research
and Therapy: May 8 is Call-Your-Senators Day
Spread the Word to
Family and Friends, Colleagues and Staff
The Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, of which ASRM is a founding member, is coordinating a Call-Your-Senators-Day, May 8th. The following announcement contains instructions for calling the Capitol Switchboard to be put in touch with your Senator's office, as well as a set of message points for your call.
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Urgent! Action Alert
MAY 8th CALL YOUR SENATORS
The Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research is Coordinating a Call-Your-Senators Day – May 8th
Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121
Thank you for all of your hard work, but we cannot stop now. The Senate will vote in the next few weeks on legislation that would ban somatic cell nuclear transfer technology (SCNT, sometimes called therapeutic cloning). The Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR) is coordinating a Call-Your-Senators Day, May 8th. Please spread the word and ask your friends and family to call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121, and ask to speak with your Senators’ office. Tell them why you believe SCNT research must be allowed to continue.
As you know, the Senate has already held hearings on S. 1899, a bill by Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) that would ban all cloning including SCNT; put researchers in prison; and deny patients the benefit of any therapies developed from therapeutic cloning outside the United States.
Last week, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) joined together to sponsor S. 2439, legislation that would ban reproductive cloning to create children, but permit privately funded research involving SCNT. This legislation is widely supported among scientific, medical, and patient groups. The Senate may vote on this bill as well.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Two Steps:
1. Click http://www.camradvocacy.org/ to be taken to the website of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research. This site will provide background information on the current debate.
2. Coordinate with your friends and family to call the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121, on May 8th and urge your Senators to SUPPORT S. 2439, THE SPECTER/FEINSTEIN/HATCH/KENNEDY BILL AND OPPOSE S. 1899, THE BROWNBACK/LANDRIEU BILL, which will criminalize potentially life-saving medical research.
Message points for your call:
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Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is not the science fiction you see in movies, but rather a reasonable and appropriate way to alleviate the horrors faced by patients suffering from deadly and painful diseases.
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Cloning is widely used, vital medical tool that has allowed scientists and researchers to develop powerful new drugs; produce insulin and useful bacteria in the lab; track the origins of biological weapons; catch criminals and free innocent people; and produce new plants and livestock to help feed an undernourished world population.
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The nation’s leading scientists, including two prestigious committees of the National Academy of Sciences, agree that cloning to reproduce humans should be illegal, but that SCNT (or therapeutic cloning) should be permitted.
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SCNT is a research technique to develop cells that can be used to treat or cure chronic and degenerative diseases and disorders. The process has nothing to do with sexual reproduction. Its sole purpose is research to meet unmet medical needs.
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By moving stem cell research forward, SCNT could bring new hope to the nearly 100 million Americans who suffer from cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, hepatitis, Parkinson’s disease and other devastating conditions for which treatments must still be found.
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SCNT allows a patient's own genetic material to be used to develop advanced stem cell therapies. These therapies—including transplants and transfusions-- would be tailored to match each patient’s specific medical condition and dramatically reduce the possibility of causing the patient’s immune system to attack and reject the therapy.
The Brownback bill would have devastating results. It would:
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Ban SCNT, or therapeutic cloning, cutting-off hope to millions of Americans with life-threatening diseases;
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Make it illegal for U.S. citizens to seek SCNT treatment abroad;
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Send a U.S. scientist to jail for developing SCNT therapies in a petri dish;
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Make it illegal for U.S. scientists to import SCNT therapies that were developed in other countries.
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Another activity-- It's easy and fun to go to Tennessee Senator Bill Frist, MD's web-site and show your opposition to his stand on cloning research. Go to http://www.senate.gov/~frist/ and vote "no" to his on-line poll question, "Should cloning human embryos be banned?"
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