Fw: May 8th- Action Alert Call Your Senators!

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May 8th- Action Alert Call Your Senators!

Urgent! Action Alert

MAY 8TH CALL YOUR SENATORS

The Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research is Coordinating a

Call-Your-Senators Day - May 8th

Call the Capitol Switchboard at

Thank you for all of your hard work, but we cannot stop now. The Senate

will vote in the next few weeks on legislation that would ban somatic cell

nuclear transfer technology (SCNT, sometimes called therapeutic cloning).

The Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR) is coordinating

a Call-Your-Senators Day, May 8th. Please spread the word and ask your

friends and family to call the Capitol Switchboard at , and ask

to speak with your Senators' office. Tell them why you believe SCNT

research must be allowed to continue.

As you know, the Senate has already held hearings on S. 1899, a bill by

Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Senator Landrieu (D-LA) that would ban

all cloning including SCNT; put researchers in prison; and deny patients the

benefit of any therapies developed from therapeutic cloning outside the

United States.

This week, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Dianne

Feinstein (D-CA) and Kennedy (D-MA) have joined together to sponsor

S. 2439, legislation that would ban reproductive cloning to create children,

but permit privately funded research involving SCNT. This legislation is

widely supported among scientific, medical, and patient groups. The Senate

may vote on this bill as well.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

Two Steps:

1. Click < http://www.camradvocacy.org/> to be taken to the website of the

Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research. This site will provide

background information on the current debate.

2. Coordinate with your friends and family to call the Capitol Switchboard,

, on May 8th and urge your Senators to SUPPORT S. 2439, THE

SPECTER/FEINSTEIN/HATCH/KENNEDY BILL AND OPPOSE S. 1899, THE

BROWNBACK/LANDRIEU BILL, which will criminalize potentially life-saving

medical research.

Make your support of SCNT known!!!!!

Message points for your call:

* Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is not the science fiction you

see in movies, but rather a reasonable and appropriate way to alleviate the

horrors faced by patients suffering from deadly and painful diseases.

* Cloning is widely used, vital medical tool that has allowed

scientists and researchers to develop powerful new drugs; produce insulin

and useful bacteria in the lab; track the origins of biological weapons;

catch criminals and free innocent people; and produce new plants and

livestock to help feed an undernourished world population.

* The nation's leading scientists, including two prestigious

committees of the National Academy of Sciences, agree that cloning to

reproduce humans should be illegal, but that SCNT (or therapeutic cloning)

should be permitted.

* SCNT is a research technique to develop cells that can be used to

treat or cure chronic and degenerative diseases and disorders. The process

has nothing to do with sexual reproduction. Its sole purpose is research to

meet unmet medical needs.

* By moving stem cell research forward, SCNT could bring new hope to

the nearly 100 million Americans who suffer from cancer, Alzheimer's,

diabetes, hepatitis, Parkinson's disease and other devastating conditions

for which treatments must still be found.

* SCNT allows a patient's own genetic material to be used to develop

advanced stem cell therapies. These therapies-including transplants and

transfusions-- would be tailored to match each patient's specific medical

condition and dramatically reduce the possibility of causing the patient's

immune system to attack and reject the therapy.

The Brownback bill would have devastating results.

It would:

* Ban SCNT, or therapeutic cloning, cutting-off hope to millions of

Americans with life-threatening diseases;

* Make it illegal for U.S. citizens to seek SCNT treatment abroad;

* Send a U.S. scientist to jail for developing SCNT therapies in a petri

dish;

* Make it illegal for U.S. scientists to import SCNT therapies that were

developed in other countries.