10/8/2004 12:00:00 AM
Momentum is building to expand the current federal embryonic stem cell research policy. The House of Representatives, Senate, and CAMR member organizations have all voiced their opinion — now is the opportunity for individuals to do the same. Please sign two online stem cell research petitions to President Bush regarding the expansion of his policy on stem cell research.
Senator Feinstein Stem Cell Research Petition:
http://feinstein.senate.gov/stemcell.html. The site was launched July 29, 2004 on Senator Feinstein''s website.
People of Faith Petition to President Bush: http://www.pfaith.org .
The site lists about 8,000 signatures to date and has a number of impressive endorsers.
We hope you will share these links with your friends and family in order to increase participation in these petitions. Both of these petitions are linked on the CAMR website''s "Useful Links" page, under the category of "Other Useful Links":
Embryonic stem cells have the potential to be used to treat and better understand diseases such as Parkinson''s, Alzheimer''s, heart disease, spinal cord injury, diabetes, ALS and cancer. However, the current federal stem cell policy limits research to only the lines that were created prior to August 9, 2001, the date that President Bush announced his policy. Federal funding is prohibited for research on stem cell lines developed after that date. At the time, the Administration thought there were more than 60 stem cell lines suitable and available for research. It has become clear that only 21 stem cell lines are available today. This limited number of lines is holding up the research that may one day provide new therapies for diseases that currently afflict more than 100 million Americans.