New Yorkers:

CALL AND WRITE YOUR STATE SENATOR
TO SUPPORT LEGISLATION
ON STEM CELL RESEARCH AND SOMATIC CELL NUCLEAR TRANSFER (SCNT)

 Please  pass this email on to your family, friends, neighbors, support
group members, doctors, nurses  - anyone you know who supports stem cell
research.
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New York State's Assembly passed a stem cell research and somatic cell
nuclear transfer (SCNT) bill on Wednesday, March 19, 2003.  Assembly bill
6249, entitled “The Reproductive Cloning Prohibition and Research
Protection Act” declares that it is in the public interest to develop
potential benefits of stem cell research and therapeutic cloning;
prohibits reproductive cloning; defines therapeutic cloning and
reproductive cloning along with other relevant terms; sets penalties for
violations; and further establishes a legislative commission on human
cloning.

We now need your assistance in getting this legislation through the New
York State Senate.  Please call and write to your State Senator.  You can
locate your State Senator by logging onto the New York State Board of
Elections website at http://map01.elections.state.ny.us/boe/main.asp and
enter your address. If you are having problems locating your state
senator, please contact me.

Below are some  message points for you to use when calling and writing
your State Senator regarding stem cell research and SCNT.  The following
information should guide you with your communications on the phone and in
outlining your message.

COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR STATE SENATOR:

·       Request to speak directly with the legislator.  If the legislator is
not available, staff will often discuss issues with constituents.
Provide the legislator’s staff with the same information you would
provide to a legislator.  At the end of a conversation with a
legislator’s staff, request that you still be given the opportunity to
discuss this issue directly with the legislator.

·       Identify the problem:  Tell your State Senator to support legislation
that prohibits reproductive cloning but authorizes and encourages
therapeutic cloning and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) similar to
New York State Assembly bill 6249.

·       Express urgency:  We need your State Senator to act immediately to make
their position known on this issue because valuable research time is at
stake and patients’ lives are at stake.

·       Request a specific action.  Senators should support therapeutic cloning
and SCNT legislation and move this legislation swiftly through the Health
Committee to the floor of the Senate for action.  Request that the
Senator’s office follow-up to let you know what action they have taken
and that, if possible, they copy you on any correspondence

MESSAGE POINTS  you can  include in letters, emails, and phone calls
(adapted from the Coalition for Medical Research)

·       The scientific and medical breakthroughs made over the past decade
related to embryonic stem cell research could impact the lives of New
Yorkers and other Americans suffering from many of humanity's most
devastating illnesses, including Parkinson's disease, ALS, heart disease,
cancer, spinal cord injury and diabetes. There is hope that embryonic
stem cell research will result in new treatments and cures for many of
these diseases and disabilities.

***TELL  THEM WHY THIS RESEARCH  IS IMPORTANT TO YOU.

·       Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) – therapeutic cloning – is
critical because it can used to develop new and innovative treatments –
such as replacement cells and tissue - that allow organs to function
again and restore hope to millions of families.

·       SCNT aims to treat or cure patients by creating tailor-made,
genetically identical cells that their bodies will not reject. In other
words, SCNT could allow patients to be cured using their own DNA.

·       We should be giving our top scientists and doctors every possible tool
to push for breakthroughs in treating cancer, Alzheimer's Disease,
Parkinson's Disease, juvenile diabetes, spinal cord injuries, stroke and
a multitude of other diseases.

·       Many of the patients plagued by these diseases do not have time to
wait, nor do they have other satisfactory treatment options or avenues
for relief. For them, a delay in research could be a death sentence or
relegation to agonizing pain and suffering.

SCIENCE AND RESEARCH POINTS:

·       Preventing scientists from conducting stem cell research and somatic
cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) would send a message to scientists,
including those just beginning their careers, that these research
technologies should not be pursued for fear that the work could become
illegal at some unknown point in the future. It would stigmatize this
research as suspect and, in effect, would bring this type of research to
a grinding halt.

·       The failure of New York to authorize and encourage therapeutic cloning
and SCNT will likely cause talented, cutting-edge scientists to pursue
valuable research at academic research institutions outside the State;
medical education and research in New York will, thus, be sorely impeded
and isolated from dynamic advances.  Other States have lost scientists
for this reason.

·       SCNT could allow researchers to move stem cell research to a new level,
developing stem cell therapies that are specifically tailored to an
individual's medical condition. Moreover, SCNT could help scientists
develop stem cells that will not be attacked and destroyed by the body's
immune system. This holds particular promise for patients who suffer from
diabetes, heart disease, and spinal cord injuries.

·       Presently, scientists do not have enough stem cells for research. There
are only a small number of NIH-approved embryonic stem cell lines
available to government-supported researchers, not nearly enough to
proceed at full pace with extensive research or enough to turn promising
research into treatments or cures.

·       Although adult stem cell research shows promise in some areas and
should be pursued, our nation's top scientists, the National Institutes
of Health, and the National Academy of Sciences all agree that embryonic
stem cells have greater potential than adult cells.

·       The cells currently available to researchers are insufficient because:
        -- They do not allow full investigation of the genetic causes of
disease. For example, scientists need to create new cells that actually
contain genetic diseases in order to study how these diseases affect the
growth and development of other cells and tissue.
        -- They are not sufficiently racially or ethnically diverse. Certain
diseases are more prevalent in people of particular races, like sickle
cell disease. By creating new stem cells from people of specific races,
scientists could help unravel the causes of these diseases.
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This effort involves the collaboration of a number of  NYS disease
organizations, (including PDF, Christopher Reeve Foundation, Juvenile
Diabetes), patients, researchers, academic institutions, biotech
companies and  is being coordinated by  the AmDec Foundaton (Academic
Medicine DEvelopment Company)
If anyone has questions or would like to help out further please contact
:
Linda Herman  [log in to unmask]
or Lupe McCann  [log in to unmask]

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