Contact: Maggie Goldberg
973-379-2690 Ext. 115

April 3, 2002

Patient Advocates, Researchers Launch Nation-Wide Advertising Campaign to Support "Therapeutic Cloning" (aka Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, or SCNT)

"We are very proud to be able to educate the American public and United States Congress with this campaign," said Michael Manganiello, President of CAMR, which is sponsoring the campaign. "These ads cut through the scare tactics of SCNT opponents and help clear up the myths."

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a bill banning SCNT in April or May. In the first phase of the campaign, during the Congressional recess, CAMR is buying radio and print ads in major cities in the home states of key Senators. CAMR plans to expand the reach of the ads, and include television ads before the Senate vote.

"We urge Senators not to deny hope to millions of people with life-threatening diseases, and to listen to those for whom SCNT could be a matter of life and death," said Christopher Reeve, Chairman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, a member of CAMR. "These ads explain that SCNT produces stem cells, not babies, using the patient's own DNA, not sperm."

The ads present the voices and faces of some of the 100 million Americans who could be helped by SCNT -- men, women and children with spinal cord injury, ALS, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Rett syndrome, cancer, AIDS, diabetes and many more conditions for which there is now no cure.

"It's hard to believe the Senate is actually considering putting people in jail for doing life-saving research," said Kris Gulden, a paralyzed former police officer featured in the radio ads. "SCNT has nothing to do with copying human beings and everything to do with generating stem cells that can be used to treat life-threatening medical conditions. And it's strongly supported by the National Academy of Sciences."

"For me, this is all about the hope of finding new treatments and cures for millions of children who suffer every day," said Monica Coenraads whose daughter, Chelsea, is featured in the print ads. Chelsea has Rett Syndrome, an incurable genetic disorder that prevents her from walking, talking, or using her hands.