July 7, 2004

Beckie McCleery (512) 585-3329

Judy Haley (713) 464-8707

Texas Medical Association Endorses All Forms of Stem Cell Research 
TAMR Praises Respected Physician Organization

The Texas Medical Association (TMA), the state’s most respected physician organization and the country’s largest with more than 39,000 members, has formally announced its support for embryonic stem cell research (see attached article reprinted from the July 2004 issue of TexasMedicine). In making this endorsement, the TMA adds prestige and an important voice to the groundswell of public and private citizens, professional and health advocacy organizations, and elected officials who support research on all types of stem cell research -embryonic, adult, and cord blood cells.

“We are grateful to the TMA Council on Scientific Affairs, which authored the resolution of support, and to the organization as a whole for this acknowledgment of the importance of stem cell research,” said Beckie McCleery, President of Texans for Advancement of Medical Research (TAMR). “We will work together in the next legislative session to advance research and treatment opportunities in Texas.”

“Stem cells have the potential to provide cures or treatment for many devastating diseases. Ethical considerations, which often arise when a field of research is new, should be evaluated as research proceeds,” Dr. Leo Cigarroa, chairman of the TMA Council on Scientific Affairs was quoted as saying in a recent Associated Press news release.

Cigarroa, a family practitioner from Laredo, hopes the endorsement will help to convince President Bush to expand federal funding for stem-cell research. In the same press release, Cigarroa said that he does not, “think the good Lord intended people to spend the last 20 years of their life in debilitating conditions.”

TAMR is composed of leading scientists, physicians, ethicists, health groups, and individuals who support biomedical research for the purpose of curing diseases and alleviating suffering. TAMR was created last legislative session in response to the threat to stem cell research in Texas. TAMR is helping to build a bi-partisan coalition within the Texas legislature that supports all types of stem cell research.

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Texas Medicine

A Publication of the Texas Medical Association

Texas Medicine Public Health Feature — July 2004

Hope or Horror? Texas Physicians Choose Hope in Backing Therapeutic Cloning

By Ken Ortolon

Senior Editor

Will stem cell research give physicians new ways to treat disease? Or threaten society with the horror of humans created solely for their stem cells and the prospect of designer babies? That was the debate reignited in February when So uth Korean researchers revealed that they had successfully harvested stem cells from a cloned human embryo.

Some in Congress want all embryonic stem cell research banned. USA Today reports that 33 state legislatures are considering laws supporting, funding, or condemning embryonic stem cell research.

But supporters say stem cell research and so-called “therapeutic cloning” should be embraced because of their great potential for creating new cures for disease. They urge lifting a ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell researc h before the United States falls behind other nations.

Meanwhile, several private institutions, including Harvard University, are moving forward with stem cell research without federal money.

In May, Texas physicians joined the fray. The Texas Medical Association House of Delegates voted to support research on both embryonic and adult stem cells and to support therapeutic cloning in biomedical research. However, the house a lso decided to oppose cloning for producing a human child.

Corpus Christi clinical geneticist Raymond C. Lewandowski Jr., MD, says abandoning or limiting research on any type of stem cells would be “premature and ill-advised since we haven’t seen what the potential of any of them really is yet .”

Measuring the Potential

The new policy the house approved was recommended by the TMA Council on Scientific Affairs in consultation with the Board of Councilors. The policy, based largely on an American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs report, supports biomedical research on multipotent stem cells, including embryonic, adult, and umbilical cord blood stem cells. It also supports somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technology, or therapeutic cloning, for biomedical research ; opposes cloning specifically for producing a child; and encourages public support for federal funding for research involving pluripotent stem cells.

Dr. Lewandowski, a member of the council and primary author of the report, says the research community does not support reproductive cloning.

“No one within the organization or within the legitimate scientific community believes that human cloning should ever occur.”

Therapeutic cloning is another matter, however.

In its report, the council concluded that all types of stem cells show great potential for therapeutic application, but embryonic stem cells have the maximum potential.

“In most cases, to be useful in research and eventually medical therapies, these cells must be able to be grown in tissue culture, maintain genetic stability for at least eight months, and have the ability to differentiate into any org an type,” the report states. “Under some circumstances, freshly collected stem cells may be useful without cultures. Stem cells from embryonic tissue clearly possess all of these potentials. It is not currently known if stem cells deri ved from adult tissues have these potentials.”

There are four potential sources for embryonic stems cells. They are embryos created for reproduction that went unused and are stored by fertility clinics, SCNT, parthenogenesis, and more than 70 embryonic stem cell lines that existed before President Bush’s August 2001 ban on federal funding. While the 70 stem cell lines can be used in government-funded research, only 13 are available to U.S. researchers. Parthenogenesis involves selecting eggs at a point in their maturation cycle when they still have their full complement of genes and artificially stimulating them to induce cell division. It has been successful in rodent embryos, but not in humans.

Building a Better Cell

SCNT involves removing the nucleus from an egg and replacing it with a nucleus from an adult cell. This “new cell” then forms a blastocyst from which stem cells can be harvested.

The council concluded that embryonic stem cells created through SCNT are better for therapeutic purposes because they can be administered to the nucleus donor without eliciting an immune response.

O. Edwin McClusky, MD, former chair of the Council on Scientific Affairs, and Albert Sanders, MD, former chair of the Board of Councilors, say those panels backed embryonic stem cell research, including SCNT, because of its tremendous promise in treating a wide range of diseases.

While acknowledging concerns that “some rogue” scientist might attempt to use SCNT to produce a human child, Dr. Sanders says the Board of Councilors feels the risk versus the reward is worthwhile.

“If you’ve got appropriate safeguards on it and complete agreement that cloning leading to production of a child is wrong, then I think you can keep a lid on it so that it’s only used for valid research.”

The Council on Scientific Affairs began examining the issue of therapeutic cloning last summer, and its report was vetted with several other TMA councils and committees, TMA physician leaders, and some physicians known to hold pro-life positions prior to approval by the full council at TMA’s Winter Conference in February. The council received little negative feedback, and the House of Delegates approved the policy without debate.

Where’s the Therapy?

However, not all physicians support the policy. New Braunfels family physician Beverly B. Nuckols, MD, spoke against it before a House of Delegates reference committee. She said therapeutic cloning is a misnomer because it provides no therapy for the organism that is the subject of the research.

She believes embryonic stem cell research violates a physician’s first duty to “do no harm,” and destroying a human embryo, even one created artificially through SCNT, amounts to taking a human life.

“I don’t believe any human has a right to kill another human and, by species definition, these embryos are human beings, Homo sapiens. I believe we need to draw the line now as to whether humans are to be killed by other humans for the benefit of a third or fourth person, or whether we’re going to say no, humans will not be killed by other humans unless that person is a direct danger to another.”

AMA policy says cloning for biomedical research is “consistent with medical ethics.”

A Ken Ortolon can be reached at (800) 880-1300, ext. 1392, or (512) 370-1392; or by e-mail at ken.ortolon@texmed.org.

July 2004 Texas Medicine Contents

“Reprinted with permission of Texas Medicine and the Texas Medical Association.”

June 7, 2004

Beckie McCleery (512) 585-3329

Judy Haley (713) 464-8707

First International Stem Cell Conference Honors Nancy Reagan, Tackles Tough Issues 
TAMR Recognizes Courage in Action

As flags fly at half-staff to honor a hero lost to degenerative disease, TAMR (Texans for Advancement of Medical Research), along with preeminent scientists and health advocacy representatives attending the First International Stem Cell Conference in California, praised the courage of the “other hero” of the Reagan family, Nancy Reagan, for her strong public support of stem cell research. In a recent speech, Mrs. Reagan spoke of the pain of watching disease slowly destroy the President’s body, and of her conviction that too much time has already been lost in this fight to save lives. “Her courage, as a Republican and a conservative, provides leadership for the ‘silent majority’ to break that silence,” said Beckie McCleery, President of TAMR and a speaker at the Conference. “We have already seen a number of Senators and Representatives, including Texas’ own Kay Bailey Hutchison, taking a public stand in support of stem cell research.”

With the U.S. National Institutes of Health now saying that expanding the policy will speed research, Congressional support for stem cell research is growing. In April, 206 Representatives sent a letter to President Bush encouraging him to expand the current stem cell policy, and many others sent separate letters of support for the research. The similar Senate letter is still being circulated and signed. TAMR Secretary Melinda Rose said, “We suggest President Bush honor President Reagan by expanding the current embryonic stem cell policy to include the 400,000 parent designated frozen embryos that would otherwise be discarded, to be used for research to find a cure for Alzheimer’s and a myriad of other diseases. What a legacy that would be for a true American hero!”

The International Stem Cell conference, held June 5-6 on the UC-Berkeley University Campus, was the first grassroots advocacy event of its kind. Over 300 attendees-health advocates from across the nation-heard all sides of the ethical debate about embryonic stem cells, and listened as scientists described the potential power of stem cells to repair and regenerate lost tissue. “Stem cell research, a completely new field of medicine, is the next ‘giant step for mankind,’” said TAMR President McCleery.

TAMR is composed of leading scientists, physicians, ethicists, health groups, and individuals who support biomedical research for the purpose of curing diseases and alleviating suffering. TAMR was created last legislative session in response to the threat to stem cell research in Texas. TAMR is helping to build a bi-partisan coalition within the Texas legislature that supports all types of stem cell research.

U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison Signs Stem Cell Support Letter to President Bush

May 14, 2004

Beckie McCleery (512) 585-3329

Judy Haley (713) 464-8707

U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison Signs Stem Cell Support Letter to President Bush TAMR Applauds this Bold Step to Cure Degenerative Diseases

Once again, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has taken a bold position of leadership for the state of Texas. Last week, 206 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including conservative pro-life Republican leaders, sent President Bush a bi-partisan letter asking him to expand his policy on stem cell research. This week, the Senate began to weigh in with a similar bi- partisan letter, and one of the first Republicans to sign on was Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas.

Long known for her support of biomedical research, Senator Hutchison recently formed the Texas Academy for Science, Engineering, and Medicine, bringing together preeminent leaders to push Texas further to the forefront in these fields. Now she has taken her support a step further by signing the Specter-Harkin letter, which will be sent from the Senate to President Bush. Senator Hutchison’s signature sends a signal to the science and medical community across Texas that the time has come to advance stem cell research, a new frontier of medicine. To our elected officials, at both federal and state levels, her signature also clarifies that stem cell research is supported by conservative, pro-life Republicans.

“Growing numbers of citizens and elected officials are recognizing that the stem cell lines made available under the President’s current policy are far fewer than expected. And, because the cells were grown on mouse feeder lines, they are contaminated with mouse viruses and proteins, making them unsuitable for human therapy. These problems will have a direct impact on how quickly cure therapies can be developed for diabetes, Parkinson’s, MS, and other degenerative diseases,” said Judith Haley, Vice President of Texans for Advancement of Medical Research (TAMR).

“Stem cell research is not a Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, pro-life or pro-choice issue,” said Beckie McCleery, TAMR President. “It crosses all lines of thought and belief. With their public support, members of Congress are clearly articulating a desire to advance stem cell research to cure the most devastating diseases of our time. We are very grateful to Senator Hutchison for stepping out and taking a lead on this issue.”

TAMR is composed of leading scientists, physicians, ethicists, health groups, and individuals who support biomedical research for the purpose of curing diseases and alleviating suffering. TAMR was created last legislative session in response to the threat to stem cell research in Texas. TAMR is helping to build a bi-partisan coalition within the Texas legislature that supports all types of stem cell research for regenerative medicine.