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Advocacy & Research for Unlimited Lifespans
All:
First, immediately: you may have thought that the lifting of the court injunction against Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research ended the matter. It did not. The underlying legislative and regulatory problem that underlies it (the Dickey-Wicker rule barring any Federal dollars from being used, even indirectly, to support research that poses any threat to the integrity an embryo) pre-existed it by decades and hasn't gone away. The lawsuit is still ongoing, and if it is successful, it will bring the full implications of this legislative shackle onto all research using embryonic stem cells -- a situation even more restrictive than the Bush restrictions, which supposedly gave permission for up to 20 lines.
The only way to securely shield scientists and their funding for embryonic stem cell research from the force of existing law is legislative action, which is why U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Mike Castle (R-DE -- and now a lame duck) were already working on legislation to take it off the table before this crisis came up and continue to do now.
Research!America and others have now launched an electronic letter-writing campaign to urge legislators to secure the ability of scientists to pursue this vital line of research:
Urge Congress to Pass the Stem Cell Research Advancement Act
Take action now! Urge your representative and senators to pass the Stem Cell Research Advancement Act (H.R. 4808 in the House and S. 3766 in the Senate) this year. The U.S. must continue to invest in embryonic stem cell research and a legislative solution is necessary to ensure that federal funding for this important research is no longer vulnerable to political or ideological challenge.
The 111th Congress must act now: call on Congress to pass a bill in 2010 that explicitly authorizes the NIH to fund hESC research.
Write to your delegation in support of embryonic stem cell research now!
