Action Alert 2002-3: We are hoping to bombard Sen. Frank Murkowski
(R-Alaska)phone lines and emails. 

This is day three of our campaign to contact each Senator Murkowski who
is in support Senator Brownback's bill. One Senator will be targeted
each day.

Today the Young Onset Parkinson’s Association (YOPA), are asking for
everyone to contact Senator Murkowski using email, phone, fax, or all of
these mediums. Please have your friends and family do the same. Contact
information for the Senator follows and a sample email is at the end of
this letter.

E-mail:
http://capwiz.com/pan/mail/compose/?opt-out=0&type=CO&state=AK&tabtype=C
O&qstate=AK&id=170&mailid=custom

Washington Office:
Phone: (202) 224-6665
Fax: (202) 224-5301
322 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-0202

Main District Office:
Phone: (907) 225-6880
Fax: (907) 225-0390
540 Water St., Ste. 101
Ketchikan, AK 99901


Last Thursday evening Senators Orrin Hatch and Sam Brownback presented
what appeared to be unscheduled presentations on the Feinstein and
Brownback bills. Both of the Senator’s agreed that human cloning should
be banned. However, Senator Brownback appears to not understand the
issue and kept confusing matters with “human patenting” and
“reproductive cloning”. He gave several examples of letters written to
him expressing fears that stem cell technology would lead to human
cloning and unethical practices as well as a chart outlining the growth
of a woman from frozen “fertilized” egg to a 28 year old woman. He was
trying to say that in the process of SCNT, which uses “unfertilized”
eggs, human life is destroyed at the cellular level.

Co-sponsors of Brownback’s bill are clearly misinformed on this
technology. SCNT, therapeutic cloning, takes an “unfertilized” human
egg, removes the female DNA from the egg, transplants DNA such as skin
cells from the intended recipient of the stem cells, then the egg is
“shocked” to cause the cells to divide which creates an “embryo” (not a
human life bearing embryo, simply an embryo where these stem cells, not
babies, can grow), after a few days the new “embryonic” stem cells are
removed (and obviously the “embryo” is destroyed in the process. The
stem cells have the capability to become any cell in the human body. To
include cells that would regenerate dopamine as in the case of
Parkinson’s disease.

Many co-sponsors of the Brownback bill fear this technique will be used
“someday” to clone humans—which is known as “reproductive cloning” where
the donors DNA remains intact within the egg. This is not the issue at
hand and we must let these co-sponsors, and Senator Brownback understand
this.

In short, SCNT technology saves lives, maybe yours someday and we
must not allow the Brownback bill to ban or delay this critical
research.


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Sample email follows if you wish to cut and paste it, and replace the
highlighted text with your own story.


“Dear Senator Murkowski,

I am very dissapointed to see that you clearly do not
understand SCNT technology as supported by the Feinstein
bill, this being therapeutic cloning using “unfertilized eggs”.

This issue affects me greatly because I deal with the difficulties of
living with Parkinson’s on a daily basis. This technology is our best
chance for a cure within 5 to 7 years according to the National
Institute of Health (NIH). Just think I could be running and playing
with my children again, and that gives me hope. If co-sponsors of the
Brownback bill do not educate themselves on this issue, instead of being
blinded by political and corporate propaganda, then my hopes are set on
the back burner.

Senator Brownback has changed his position on banning any such research
and now is asking  for a 2 year moratorium. A moratorium isn’t
necessary. SCNT/human therapeutic cloning research has been studied and
endorsed by the
National Academy of Sciences. 

A moratorium would mean that important medical breakthroughs are put on
hold indefinitely. People suffering from disease will be told they will
just
have to wait for their cures. Many of these patients do not have time to
wait and a research delay could be a death sentence. Do you want to be a
part of this?

A moratorium sends a strong signal to the scientific community that
SCNT/human therapeutic cloning should not be pursued. Further, it
stigmatizes this research as suspect. Researchers will be unwilling to
pursue this important area of science because of the stigma as well as
the uncertainty about whether it will ever become an accepted form of
research. 

Shutting down research today and restarting it when a moratorium is
lifted is illogical. It makes no sense to impose a moratorium that
forces patients with diseases to wait two years before researchers can
get started on potential cures and treatments. A moratorium will hold
back science much longer than two years. 

With a moratorium, SCNT research will continue in other countries while
disallowed in the United States – the effects of this will be: 


• Scientists may leave this country to perform research elsewhere. This
has already begun. In fact Saudia Arabia is setting up a stem cell
research program as we speak.

• Americans will not have first access to the newest, and potentially
best, treatments because new products will be developed in other
countries. And if patients do go overseas for this life saving
treatment, according to the Brownback bill, they would be incarcerated
upon their return!

• The U.S will surrender its ability to lead the world not only in
research, but to set the ethical and regulatory standards about how this
research should be conducted.

As you are also aware, the Feinstein Bill has/is being changed to
present stronger language and more detailed information on what exactly
this technology is and what it is not. It definitely is not the cloning
of human life; it is the cloning of cells that may further be
manipulated in various ways. This is life saving technology not life
destroying.”

Sincerely,

Thomas N. Berdine
Young Onset Parkinson's Association (YOPA)
http://www.yopa.org/

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