Letter Opposing Cloning Patents
June
18, 2002
The Honorable Thomas A. Daschle
Majority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Mr. Leader:
The Association of American Medical Colleges strongly opposes
the amendment offered by Senator Sam Brownback (S.A. 3843)
to S. 2600, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. This amendment
is a "back door" effort to impose a prohibition
on somatic cell nuclear transfer research, also know as nuclear
transplantation or therapeutic cloning. The amendment is both
unnecessary and unwise.
Part of the amendment would prohibit any patent claim including
a human being within its scope. It is already the policy of
the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to deny patents on any
subject matter that encompasses a human being. A 1987 PTO
memo issued by Donald J. Quigg, Assistant Secretary of Commerce
and Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, states, "A
claim directed to or including within its scope a human being
will not be considered to be patentable subject matter."
Accordingly, since 1987, the PTO has rejected any application
that encompasses a human being. Thus, the amendment offered
by Senator Brownback is superfluous.
However, the amendment also seeks to prohibit the patenting
of any process of human cloning. This provision would effectively
remove any economic incentive to conduct stem cell and SCNT
research. Thus, the amendment would effectively stop investment
in this vital research activity in the United States.
Nuclear transplantation will provide invaluable knowledge
about cell growth and specialization, which in turn could
provide new understanding of the mechanisms that result in
the abnormal cells responsible for cancers and certain birth
defects. Improved understanding of cell specialization may
also provide answers to how cells are regulated and how they
age, leading to new approaches to the treatment or cure of
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and other incapacitating
degenerative diseases of the brain and spinal cord. The technology
also promises to further our understanding about how to activate
certain genes selectively 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.
The current opportunities in medical research are unparalleled
in our nation's history, and among the brightest of these
is the further study and application of adult and embryonic
stem cell technology. The production of stem cells by nuclear
transplantation may yet prove the most powerful and widely
beneficial of all. However, we will never see the fulfillment
of any of this promise if we choose to take the perilous and
unprecedented path of banning through legislation research
on nuclear transplantation to produce stem cells.
Senator Brownback's amendment is a thinly veiled attempt
at banning this important research outright. We respectfully
ask you to oppose this amendment because it would seriously
curtail continued advances in medical research and dash the
hopes of countless patients who have no current prospect for
cure.
Sincerely,
Jordan J. Cohen, M.D.
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