I promised to keep you updated on the status of reintroduction of the stem cell bills. Here is the latest:
From the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR) :
Dear Eyedoc333,
We wanted to give you an update on House and Senate activity on the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act in the 110th Congress. On January 5th both chambers convened for business and Members of Congress had an opportunity to introduce legislation for the first time this year. Among the bills introduced were HR 3 and S 5, the House and Senate versions of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. The House has scheduled HR 3 for floor consideration next Thursday 11 January. The Senate will likely take the bill up late this month. The Senate is planning a joint hearing with the Senate Labor-HHS-Ed Appropriations Subcommittee and Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee around the 3rd week in January. Details for that hearing are not yet available.
Given the prompt Congressional action on these bills, your immediate and continued efforts to reach all Members of Congress, especially the new Members, and urge their support for the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, are critical.
You can find phone numbers and email addresses for elected officials on Congress.org :
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt
15 comments:
Hy Doc:
I'm sure that you're busy today.
Is the Amniotic/placental discussion today for real or a distraction?
With a layman's understanding, I was surprised that this is the first that I've heard of those as viable options.
I was also surprised at the CNN "science" editor who of course used the phrase "rather than killing an embryo" in her explanation of the procedure.
CNN Fair Balanced & STOOPID.
I assume this is not a simple attempt to get the bill off the table?
Titu.
OMG:
I have asked a real question. It may even be related to your blog thread.
Look out the sky is falling. The sky is falling.
Hi Titu!
Yes, I think the amniotic stem cells are an interesting avenue. However, I am not yet convinced that they trump embryonic stem cells. I would like to see all of the different stem cell sources compared side-by-side to determine which cells will work better under different conditions.
"I am not yet convinced that they trump embryonic stem cells."
i could have sworn i've heard about stem cells in amniotic fluid/placenta before. i also recall that these cells did not exibit the same atributes as the embrionic cells.
am i having crazy deja vu or what?
KEvron
very compelling point, frumer john. there's certainly no competing with late-night animated programs. and on cable, no less.
dumber'n....
KEvron
Good memory, KEvron!
I did a literature search and there are reports of stem cells in amniotic fluid going back to 2004, at least:
Tsai MS, Lee JL, Chang YJ, Hwang SM. Isolation of human multipotent mesenchymal stem cells from second-trimester amniotic fluid using a novel two-stage culture protocol. Hum Reprod. 2004 Jun;19(6):1450-6.
Are there stem cells in umbilical cords?
Yes, Fantod. Here's a recent citation--
Sanchez-Ramos J. Stem cells from umbilical cord blood. Semin Reprod Med. 2006 Nov;24(5):358-69.
Why do Liberals hate babies and want to make products out of them they can sell?
Strauss was right about liberals making everything secular and relative and not sacred anymore.
Next thing you know babies are going to be born amniotic deficient, particularly from drug usung mothers, because they will be able to sell the fluid for drug money, just like they sell their blood now.
RV, I'm thinking that was humor of the absurd on your part. Sadly, there are those who actually think that way.
Hey doc - love the new big bold print!
After watching this whole thing go down in Missouri, my observation is that we've got to do a MUCH better job of educating the public on this issue.
There are people who are going to be opposed no matter what becuase it's just an issue of faith with them. I respect their position, as a person of faith, but I don't happen to agree.
But, there's a chunk in the middle that just doesn't understand the debate.
They don't understand what an embryo is. They don't understand how long it takes to move something from the bench to a clinical trial. They don't understand how expensive medical research really is. They don't understand why clinical applications for other types of cells are out there, yet not so much for the embryonic stem cells And they don't understand why the federal funding is so important. After all, if this is such a great idea won't industry be all over it anyway? Hopefully the media outreach will be a little better this time on these points.
I'll be watching with a lot of interest.
Hi Heather! I'm glad you like the remodeling of the blog.
This stem cell discussion in Congress is going to get very interesting and it starts tomorrow!
Stem cell research should be just a mainstream avenue of investigation, just as vaccines are. It's the right wing fundies who are politicizing this issue.
Well, the bill passed the House, but it doesn't look good for over-riding the veto.
it doesn't look good for over-riding the veto.
Somebody should Veto voting with one's b(R)ain stem ...
Snerd
Well I've started trying to figure out who voted against the bill, and to try to get polite write-in campaigns going.
Republicans up for election in 2008 may well be persuaded - they're nervous enough on a number of positions. We're only 37 votes shy of a veto override this time.
Yes, writing to friends and family as well helps - a lot of people don't realize that amniotic stem cells don't offer the same hope as blastocyst (so called "embryonic") stem cells.
A lot of people don't realize it's quite normal for women to pass out fertilized eggs (blastocysts) that never attach to the womb - pregnancy doesn't happen every time fertilization occurs - is that murder? Is that "auto abortion"?
A lot of people don't realize that these 3-day old eggs have no systems at all, certainly not a nervous system or feelings or organs. Nope, not a nerve, just a few cells tied together with a genetic plan and a hope to one day find it out of the freezer and planted medically into a womb.
So contact your loved ones, especially your conservative ones, and tell them nicely that this isn't abortion, isn't murder. It's about human hope resting on our great American scientific progress. And ask them to write their congressman/woman or Senator.
I just passed by an Iraq Vets for Cures page. People talk about the soldiers killed, but not so much about those wounded - often paralyzed, a condition that might be helped by embryonic stem cell research. (but not by amniotic, which tends to help things like blood diseases). Thanks to medical progress, many of those who would have been killed instead survive. But to what? Life in a hospital bed with no hope, or at least one that has hope of a cure in 10 or 20 years?
Anyway, enough gloom talk about the veto - write, write, write. Everyone talked last summer about how the Democrats didn't have a chance in the elections. Except those who weren't talking and instead were building grassroots campaigns to compete in areas that were written off as hopeless.
P.S. If you write 5 people and they write 5 and those write 5, in 12 rounds you've hit 244 million. Rather than annoying and pointless spam, how about a useful pro-life e-mail campaign?
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