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From: Stephen Meyer To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 10:56 AM Subject: [StemCellInformation] 'Virgin birth' stem cells bypass ethical objections This is wonderful news! Imagine how much further along we'd be if full funding had happened five years ago. STEMPAC.COM Don't forget to thank those you called or eMailed re: HR810 (updates below) Senators got 18,000 calls/letters in an hour. June 30th, 2006 Stem Cell Update Here's what happened: Yesterday (Thursday, June 29th) at 1 p.m. Sen. Frist announced a unanimous consent stem cell package - which would require support from all 100 Senators. At that time Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma pledged that he would reject it, thus killing H.R. 810 and virtually destroying any chance that we would see an acutal vote on the historic legislation. Senator Frist seemed willing to allow this to transpire and made plans to announce the UC package's defeat around 4 p.m. By 2 p.m., however, thousands and thousands of DefCon members, along with members of other groups were mobilized to contact their Senators as well as Senator Frist demanding that the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act be given a real chance for a vote - something the failure of the unanimous consent package would have denied. Within an hour Frist's office was overwhelmed with calls from concerned Americans, top news media, and his exasperated colleagues in the Senate. By 6 p.m. Frist had revisited his strategy AND instead of going foward as is, made some unknown agreement with Sen. Coburn, clearing the way for a vote "before the October recess." To be clear, this means that unanimous consent was actually achieved - such consent does not require formal vote, but is more based on known agreements. Here's what's next: The Senate package, announced by Majority Leader Bill Frist (R- Tenn.) and quickly agreed to by Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D- Nev.), has three components. At its core is H.R. 810, the House- passed bill, which would allow fertility clinic patients to donate their spare embryos to federally financed researchers. Also included are two bills sought by conservatives, which stem cell research proponents have said they can support. One, sponsored by Pennsylvania GOP Sens. Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter, encourages the National Institutes of Health to finance work that might someday allow scientists to produce cells equivalent to embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos. The other, sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and known as the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act, would make it a crime for anyone to trade in tissues from fetuses that were conceived and aborted expressly for research purposes. Under the terms of the agreement, the three bills will be debated for 12 hours on a date to be agreed upon by Frist and Reid - probably next month, the leaders said. Each bill will need at least 60 votes to pass, no amendments will be allowed, and all three must pass for the package to fly. This is a very real victory for us. Be proud of all the work we have done and stay tuned for our next points of action. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn