AAMC's Letter to Members
of Congress on Cloning Legislation
[Similar letters were sent to other Congressional leaders.]
November 27, 2001
The Honorable Edward M. Kennedy
United States Senate
315 Senate Russell Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Kennedy:
The current opportunities in medical research are unparalleled
in our nation's history. To help ensure that these opportunities
are realized, the Association of American Medical Colleges
urges Congress to oppose legislation that would prohibit research
on therapeutic cloning. Such a blanket prohibition would have
grave implications for future advances in medical research
and human healing.
The Association strongly opposes human reproductive cloning.
We believe it would not only be extremely risky, but wrong.
Attempting to produce a human clone is simply unacceptable.
However, it is important to recognize the difference between
reproductive cloning and the use of cloning technology that
does not create a human being. Non-reproductive cloning technology
has potentially important applications in research, medicine
and industry, including genetically engineered human cell
cultures that would serve as "therapeutic tissues"
in the treatment of currently intractable human diseases.
These uses of cloning technology do not lead to a cloned human
being.
According to the National Institutes of Health, therapeutic
cloning technology could provide an invaluable approach to
studying how cells become specialized, which in turn could
provide new understanding of the mechanisms that lead to the
development of the abnormal cells responsible for cancers
and certain birth defects. Improved understanding of cell
specialization may also provide answers to how cells age or
are regulated - leading to new insights into the treatment
or cure of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, or other
incapacitating degenerative disease of the brain and spinal
cord. The technology might also help us understand how to
activate certain genes to permit the creation of customized
cells for transplantation or grafting. Such cells would be
genetically identical to the cells of the donor and could
therefore be transplanted into that donor without fear of
immune rejection, the major biological barrier to organ and
tissue transplantation at this time.
Other types of specialized cells could be created to enable
skin grafts for burn victims; bone marrow stem cells to treat
leukemia and other blood diseases; nerve stem cells to treat
neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), Alzheimer's and
Parkinson's disease, and to repair spinal cord injuries; muscle
cell precursors to treat muscular dystrophy and heart disease;
and cartilage-forming cells to reconstruct joints damaged
by injury or arthritis. Therapeutic cloning technology could
also be used to accomplish remarkable increases in the efficiency
and efficacy of gene therapy by permitting the creation of
pure populations of genetically "corrected" cells
that could then be delivered back into the patient, again
with no risk of immune rejection. Indeed, this technology
could well lead to the operationalization of gene therapy
as practicable and treatments - a goal which to date has proved
elusive.
We will never see the fulfillment of any of these promising
areas if we choose to take the perilous path of banning outright
research on therapeutic cloning through legislation. We thank
you for your consideration of this vital issue.
Sincerely,
Jordan J. Cohen, M.D.
President
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