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. -------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ------------------------------------------------ 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn