June 13, 2002
The Honorable George V. Voinovich
317 Hart Senate Office
Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Voinovich:
Medical research stands at a crossroad of unparalleled
opportunity. We, Ohio?s medical school Deans, invite you to join us
following a careful path toward new treatments and cures of
unlimited potential. We must not choose the path charted by S. 1899,
the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001 (the Brownback bill),
that, while criminalizing the morally objectionable research
techniques of reproductive cloning, also criminalizes the legitimate
techniques of therapeutic cloning. We urge you to oppose S. 1899.
The Brownback bill would have devastating effects on scientists?
ability to explore somatic cell nuclear transfer (therapeutic
cloning) and the possibility of developing genetically engineered
human cell cultures that would serve as "therapeutic tissues" in the
treatment of currently intractable human diseases. These uses of
cloning technology are not intended to lead to a cloned human being,
nor do they.
S. 1899 would force Ohio patients to leave the country to seek
treatments developed overseas, using therapeutic cloning techniques,
for Alzheimer?s and Parkinson?s diseases and spinal cord injury,
conditions affecting millions of Americans. Our citizens would
suffer unnecessary inconvenience and expense. They would also be
exposed to unnecessary risk, since foreign clinics, unfettered by
the ethical principles controlling research in the United States,
would also offer untested and unregulated treatment. All too often
desperate patients take desperate measures.
S. 1899 would also expose our medical scientists to large fines
and jail time for using cloning technology aimed at creating
medically useful stem cells. The pre-eminent position held by the
United States in medical research would suffer. Under the Brownback
bill, physicians could be jailed for using ethical techniques to
relieve the suffering of their patients, an unconscionable
limitation on our duty to heal.
The production of stem cells by somatic cell nuclear transfer may
prove to be the source of unprecedented benefits to humankind. These
benefits may never be realized if we choose to take the perilous and
unprecedented path of banning through legislation research on
nuclear transplantation to produce stem cells. We urge you to
distinguish these techniques from those that involve cloning human
embryos, techniques that we agree should be banned. We ask again
that you oppose S. 1899, the Brownback bill, which fails to
discriminate between these techniques and threatens the growth of
medical research and the future well-being of Ohio citizens.
Sincerely,
Nathan A. Berger, M.D.
As Chair, 2001-2002, on behalf of the
State of Ohio Medical School Deans
Dean, School of Medicine, and
Vice President for Medical Affairs
Case Western Reserve
University
Robert S. Blacklow, M.D.
Northeastern Ohio
Universities
College of Medicine
John Brose, D.O.
Dean
Ohio University College of
Osteopathic Medicine
Amira F. Gohara, M.D.
Executive Vice President/Provost and
Dean
School of Medicine
Medical College of Ohio
John J. Hutton, M.D.
Dean, College of Medicine
University
of Cincinnati
Howard M. Part, M.D.
Dean, School of Medicine
Wright State
University Senior Vice President
of Health Sciences
Dean, College of Medicine and Public
Health
Ohio State University