Medical Advances at Risk Warns CAMR
Patients, Scientists, Universities in US Oppose Global Ban
Wednesday, 05 November 2003
NEW YORK — As the United Nations General Assembly prepares to discuss two resolutions on human cloning, the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR) urges the global body to support a resolution led by Belgium which would ban reproductive cloning and thus allow therapeutic cloning for medical research purposes.
In letters being sent to all General Assembly members today, the Coalition urges support for therapeutic cloning which could lead to cures for some of life's most devastating diseases and conditions. CAMR, comprised of 80 nationally recognised patient groups, universities, and scientific societies, led the charge to support US federal funding of embryonic stem cell research and has led the efforts opposing a US ban on therapeutic cloning.
"Countries supporting a total ban on cloning say it's impossible to regulate the research, but that's just an excuse," said Michael Manganiello, president of CAMR.
"Implantation into a womb is the clear, bright line that separates reproductive cloning from therapeutic cloning. Without implantation, no new human life is possible and that's where societies can and must draw the line," added Manganiello.
"A UN resolution banning all forms of human cloning sends the wrong signal to the scientific community around the world — it stigmatises the research and will slow the pace of discoveries for decades to come," said Dr. Gerald Schatten, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
"If we don't do all we can to encourage this cutting-edge field of research now, in 20 years we'll be looking back at these lost opportunities asking ourselves how we ever let this tragedy happen," added Dr. Schatten.
Therapeutic cloning is fundamentally different from human reproductive cloning — therapeutic produces stem cells, not babies. In therapeutic cloning, the nucleus of a donor's unfertilised egg is removed and replaced with the nucleus of a patient's own cells, like a skin, heart, or nerve cell. NO sperm is used in this procedure. The cells are NOT transplanted into a womb. The unfertilised egg cells are stored in a petri dish to become a source of stem cells that can be used to treat currently incurable medical conditions. SCNT aims to treat or cure patients by creating tailor-made, genetically identical cells that their bodies won't reject. In other words, SCNT could allow patients to be cured using their own DNA.
"Human reproductive cloning is unsafe and unethical. Our goal is to ensure that we do have a global treaty which bans human reproductive cloning but still allows scientists and researchers around the world to freely pursue, within strict ethical guidelines, therapeutic cloning so that cures to debilitating diseases and conditions can be found," said Manganiello.
Source: Press release from US Newswire.
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