“I wish the president had heard the 100 million Americans who could be helped by SCNT, this promising technology to create cells for new treatments.  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 could be saved by SCNT,” said Joan Samuelson, President of the Parkinson’s Action Network. “The Brownback bill denies hope to people fighting for their lives.”

“There are profound differences between SCNT and the reproductive cloning that we all oppose,” added Elizabeth Johns Howard, mother of Allison, who live with Rett Syndrome. “SCNT uses unfertilized eggs. No sperm is involved. No embryos are ever implanted into a woman’s womb. Instead, SCNT researchers work with unfertilized egg cells stored in a petri dish to produce stem cells to treat life-threatening medical conditions.”

Somatic cell nuclear transfer could allow a patient’s own genetic material to be used to develop stem cell therapies specifically tailored to that individual’s medical condition, thus not triggering an immune rejection response.  In other words, using SCNT could repair patients with their own cells. 

Given the scientific potential in this area, CAMR strongly opposes any legislative or regulatory action that would ban research related to SCNT.  This includes criminalizing the research or the researchers, and prohibiting the importation of therapies derived from SCNT in other countries.   

However, CAMR does support efforts to prohibit human reproductive cloning while protecting important areas of medical research, including stem cell research. For more information, please visit http://www.camradvocacy.org/.

The Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR) is comprised of nationally-recognized patient organizations, universities, scientific societies, foundations, and individuals with life-threatening illnesses and disorders, advocating for the advancement of breakthrough research and technologies in regenerative medicine – including stem cell research and somatic cell nuclear transfer – in order to cure disease and alleviate suffering.