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FWD: From CAMR (Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research Urgent! Action Alert The United Nations May Vote to Ban All Forms of Cloning Monday, December 8th Take Action Now Email the General Assembly and Express Your Support for Research: [log in to unmask] On Monday, December 8th, the United Nations General Assembly may vote to ban all forms of cloning, both reproductive and therapeutic. You may recall a Committee of the UN voted on November 6th to set aside a vote on cloning for two years to allow more deliberation and for scientifically valid research to go forward. The United States is one of the countries leading this effort to reconsider the vote taken in committee, and is a prime sponsor of the resolution that would ban both reproductive and therapeutic cloning around the world. Send an email to [log in to unmask] and tell the UN to ban reproductive cloning but allow for therapeutic cloning. We are concerned about the very real possibility that the UN will call for a worldwide ban on all forms of cloning. Your input will help express the large number of individuals who support cutting edge medical research to cure and alleviate disease. For your review, we have attached a letter sent to the General Assembly from the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research. Somatic cell nuclear transfer is about saving and improving lives. Go to www.camradvocacy.org, and take action to support somatic cell nuclear transfer. For your review, we have included a letter below that was sent to the General Assembly from the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research. Make your support of SCNT known!!!!! Members of the United Nations General Assembly December 3, 2003 Your Excellency: On behalf of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research and 100 million Americans with life-threatening diseases and conditions, I write to express our grave concern over a proposed ban on all forms of human cloning, which would include therapeutic cloning for medical research purposes. The Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, (CAMR) is a nationally-recognized U.S. based organization comprised of 80 leading patient groups, universities, and scientific societies. CAMR has led the charge to support well-regulated U.S. federal funding of stem cell research and the efforts opposing a U.S. ban on therapeutic cloning. Our coalition is opposed to any resolutions which would support a global ban on all forms of human cloning. Therapeutic cloning (more correctly called somatic cell nuclear transfer or SCNT), is about saving and improving lives. It is fundamentally different from human reproductive cloning; SCNT produces stem cells, not babies. While we supported the Belgian proposal for a ban on human reproductive cloning only, we were heartened to see that the United Nations would, with a two-year postponement of a cloning decision, give more thorough consideration to this very complex medical research issue. We are concerned therefore, that a vote on December 8th, without the benefit of further discussion, is a serious mistake. In SCNT, the nucleus of an unfertilized egg is removed and replaced with the nucleus of a patients own cells, including skin, heart, and nerve cells which are called somatic cells. The goal of SCNT is to develop stem cells that will not be rejected or destroyed by the patients immune system. It is critical to understand that no sperm is used in this procedure. The cells are not transplanted into a womb. SCNT aims to treat or cure patients by creating tailor-made, genetically identical stem cells that their bodies wont reject. In other words, SCNT could allow patients to be cured using their own DNA. Attached is a listing of CAMR members. We would be pleased to offer our scientists as experts that you may call upon for questions about therapeutic cloning. Our goal is to ensure that an agreement can be reached on a global treaty to ban human reproductive cloning, but still allow scientists and researchers around the world to freely pursue therapeutic cloning, within strict ethical guidelines, so that cures to lifes most debilitating diseases can be found. Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration. Yours truly, ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn