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Fellow PWP, this is just what we need! Get on the phones and call your Senator's AGAIN and get them to vote NO to BROWNBACK and YES to the pending revision of FEINSTEIN! CLick HYPERLINK "http://capwiz.com/pan/issues/alert/?alertid=128667&type=CO"HERE to write or call your Senator's TODAY! This will be on the floor for debate and ready for a vote in one to two weeks so timeis critical. If we all do this,we will get on the path to a cure! ........Together we can win! Tom Berdine Founder; YoungParkinsons.com (HYPERLINK "http://www.youngparkinsons.com/"www.youngparkinsons.com) Parkinson's Action Network State Coordinator, New Mexico (HYPERLINK "http://www.parkinsonsaction.org/"www.parkinsonsaction.org/) President, Young Onset Parkinson's Association (YOPA) (HYPERLINK "http://www.roundisfunny.com/test/pdhood.html"http://www.roundisfunny.co m/test/pdhood.html) washingtonpost.com Senators' Bill Details Rules On Cloning Research By a Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, June 6, 2002; Page A03 An intensive effort by a bipartisan group of senators to craft detailed rules governing research on cloned human embryos is nearly complete and could be ready for a floor debate and vote within one to two weeks, sources involved in the process said yesterday. The new language spells out in unprecedented detail what scientists would -- and would not -- be allowed to do in the controversial field of human embryo cloning research. It is being written primarily by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) -- all of whom favor allowing the research to go forward -- and is to be added to a bill that they and others introduced last month. By including a raft of specific scientific and ethical restrictions in the bill, the senators hope to garner the last votes they need to gain passage, Feinstein said in an interview. But opponents renewed their pledge yesterday to fight for an alternative bill, introduced by Sens. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.), that would outlaw all research involving cloned human embryos. Both the Feinstein-Kennedy bill and the Brownback-Landrieu bill would ban "reproductive cloning," the creation of cloned babies. At issue is whether scientists should be allowed to create human embryos or embryo-like entities for research. Proponents of the research say it could lead to cures for a range of ailments. Opponents say that it is unethical to create human embryos just to destroy them again, and that similar research could be done on adult cells. Recent head counts suggest that both bills are short of the 60-vote majority that probably will be needed to gain passage. That has led some to fear that neither will pass, leaving the nation without the one thing both sides agree on: a ban on reproductive cloning. The recent effort by Feinstein and others to come up with wording to reassure Senate fence-sitters includes a strict limit on how old a cloned embryo could become before requiring that it be destroyed. Although other countries have set that limit at 14 days, Hatch is pushing for 12, to make the U.S. standard the toughest in the world, sources said. The reworded bill also would require the General Accounting Office to review the effectiveness of the legislation after one year, and have the Institute of Medicine review the field after five years. It also would describe strict ethical and scientific reviews that would be required of any proposed embryo cloning research. And it would set up protections for women whose eggs might be used for the research, Feinstein and others said, similar to the protections already in place regarding the use of aborted human fetal tissue in research. "Our bill would very precisely ban human cloning," while maintaining "a potentially enormously rewarding area of research," Feinstein said. Richard Doerflinger of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, offered a different view. "Efforts to more tightly regulate embryo cloning only end up with the government more and more directly involved in requiring their destruction," he said. "That does not solve the problem at all." © 2002 The Washington Post Company Tom Berdine Founder; YoungParkinsons.com HYPERLINK "http://www.youngparkinsons.com"www.youngparkinsons.com State Coordinator, New Mexico Parkinson's Action Network HYPERLINK "http://www.parkinsonsaction.org/"www.parkinsonsaction.org/ President, Young Onset Parkinson's Association (YOPA) HYPERLINK "http://www.roundisfunny.com/test/pdhood.html"http://www.roundisfunny.co m/test/pdhood.html --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.365 / Virus Database: 202 - Release Date: 5/24/2002 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn