FASEBnews

May 13, 2002

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Contact: Pat White
(202) 543-1155

For Immediate Release:
May 13, 2002

BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH SCIENTISTS ENDORSE
SPECTER/FEINSTEIN/HATCH/KENNEDY CLONING COMPROMISE

In a letter sent to Senator Arlen Specter on Friday, twenty-seven leading biomedical research scientists announced their strong support for S. 2439, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2002 introduced by Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Edward Kennedy (D-MA).  The scientists, who represent a wide variety of disciplines and academic institutions located throughout the United States, are board representatives of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). 

The scientists expressed their support for a ban on human reproductive cloning, but reaffirmed their support for research using nuclear transplantation to produce stem cells, a procedure sometimes referred to as “therapeutic cloning.”   In the letter, the scientists discussed the benefits of nuclear transplantation research over other human embryonic stem cell research.

The text of the letter with a list of its signatories is attached.

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May 7, 2002

 

The Honorable Arlen Specter

United States Senate

Washington, DC  20510

 

Dear Senator Specter:

 

As board members of 21 scientific societies represented by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), we are writing to thank you for introducing S. 2439, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2002.     

 

We strongly support your efforts to ban human reproductive cloning and to permit research involving nuclear transplantation to produce stem cells, under appropriate ethical guidelines.        

 

We believe that human embryonic stem cell research offers significant therapeutic promise for treating a host of diseases and debilitating disorders afflicting millions of Americans.  While we are grateful to the President for his decision last year to allow research on a qualified number of human embryonic stem cell lines, the usefulness of these cell lines is limited by a number of factors that can be addressed through nuclear transplantation.  First, nuclear transplantation research will enable the production of embryonic stem cell lines that more fully represent the genetic diversity of the U.S. population.  Second, nuclear transplantation will enable scientists to identify and understand the interplay of heritable genetic factors that gives rise to diseases such as diabetes or Alzheimer’s.  Third, in the field of cancer research, nuclear transplantation will enable scientists to examine a variety of mutations that produced certain cancer cells.  Finally, nuclear transplantation research raises the hope that, in the future, patients will receive therapies that are individually developed for them – dramatically reducing the risk of immune rejection. 

 

For more than a half-century, America’s best scientists have produced spectacular medical advances.  The exciting new field of regenerative medicine now offers substantial potential for greater breakthroughs.  S. 2439 would assure that this vital research is conducted under appropriate ethical guidelines – and that Americans have early access to its therapeutic benefits. 

 

Once again, on behalf of FASEB’s 60,000 member scientists, we thank you for advancing biomedical research and strongly endorse S. 2439.  

 

       Sincerely,

 

 

Robert R. Rich, MD

President, FASEB

American Association of Immunologists

Emory University School of Medicine

Atlanta, GA

 

Leo Furcht, MD

American Association of Investigative Pathology

University of Minnesota Medical School

Minneapolis, MN

 

Marlene Cohen, PhD

American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Lilly Research Laboratories

Indianapolis, IN

 

Richard G. Lynch, MD

American Society for Investigative Pathology

University of Iowa College of Medicine

Iowa City, IA

 

Barbara A. Horwitz, MD

The American Physiological Society

University of California – Davis

Davis, CA

 

Janet Hall, MD

The Endocrine Society

Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Boston, MA

 

Gerald F. DiBona, MD

American Physiological Society

University of Iowa College of Medicine

Iowa City, IA

 

Michael Conn, PhD

The Endocrine Society

Oregon Health and Science University

Portland, OR

 

Karen L. Bennett

Society for Developmental Biology

University of Missouri

Columbia, MO

 

Richard Marchase, PhD

American Association of Anatomists

University of Alabama – Birmingham

Birmingham, AL

 

Robert D. Wells, PhD

American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Texas A&M University

Houston, TX

 

Mary J.C. Hendrix, PhD

FASEB Past President

American Association of Anatomists

The University of Iowa

Iowa City, IA

 

Alfred H. Merrill, PhD

American Society for Nutritional Sciences

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, GA

 

James C. Rose, PhD

Society for Gynecologic Investigation

Wake Forest University

Winston Salem, NC

 

Roger A. Sunde, PhD

American Society for Nutritional Sciences

University of Missouri

Columbia, MO

 

Jerry Mitchell, MD, PhD

American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Baylor College of Medicine

Houston, TX

 

C. Robert Matthews, PhD

The Protein Society

University of Massachusetts Medical School

Worcester, MA

 

Garry Cutting, MD

The American Society for Human Genetics

Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD

 

John A. Smith, MD, PhD

American Peptide Society

University of Alabama, Birmingham

Birmingham, AL 

 

David Valle, MD

American Society for Human Genetics

Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD

 

David G. Kaufman, MD, PhD

FASEB Past-President

University of North Carolina

Chapel Hill, NC

 

Robert D. Koos, PhD

Society for the Study of Reproduction

University of Maryland

Baltimore, MD

 

Michael A. Levine, MD

American Society for Bone & Mineral Research

Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD

 

John M. DeSesso, PhD

Teratology Society

Mitretek Systems

Falls Church, VA

 

Paul W. Kincade, PhD

The American Association of Immunologists

Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation

Oklahoma City, OK

 

Steven Teitelbaum, MD

FASEB President-Elect

American Society for Bone & Mineral Research

Washington University School of Medicine

St. Louis, MO

 

Bettie Sue Masters, PhD

American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

University of Texas Health Science Center

San Antonio, TX