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Scientists,
Patient Advocates, and Political Leaders Oppose Research Ban
Christopher Reeve, Senator Kennedy, Join Nobel Prize Winners, Activists and Parents to Support Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (aka “Therapeutic Cloning”)
Contact:
Maggie
Goldberg, 800-225-0292
Tricia Brooks, 202-833-0355
Washington,
DC – Senate
leaders will join members of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical
Research (CAMR), patient advocates, parents and prominent scientists on
March 5 at 1:45 p.m. to urge the Senate not to pass legislation that would
criminalize an important research pathway, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT),
sometimes known as “therapeutic cloning.” The media briefing will
immediately precede hearings on the issue by the Senate Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Committee at 2:30 p.m.
Although
SCNT is fundamentally different from reproductive cloning, drawing support
from the National Academy of Sciences and leading doctors and
medical researchers around the country, it would be banned under
legislation that will go to the Senate floor in a few weeks. Senate
leaders, patient advocates, and prominent scientists oppose the
legislation because SCNT could lead to new treatments and cures for the
more than 100 million Americans facing now-incurable illnesses such as
cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, ALS and spinal
cord injury.
WHAT:
A media briefing highlighting the potential of SCNT on
patients and their families
WHO:
- U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
- Christopher Reeve, Chairman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation
- Dr. Paul Berg, Cahill Professor of Cancer Research and
Biochemistry, Emeritus,
Stanford University School of Medicine, Winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize
in Chemistry
ALSO AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT:
- Elizabeth Johns Howard, mother of Allison, living with Rett Syndrome
- Jerry Zucker, five time Academy-Award nominated director, father of daughter living with juvenile diabetes
- Gregg Gonsalves, Director of Treatment and Prevention Advocacy for The Gay Men's Health Crisis, New York City
- Elisabeth Bresee
Brittin, Executive Director, Parkinson’s Action Network
WHEN:
Tuesday, March 5, 2002 @ 1:45 PM
WHERE: Outside of the Senate hearing room, Hart 216