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Christian Medical Association WASHINGTON, May 15 -- As the U.S. House of
Representatives hears testimony on human cloning and the nation observes
National Women's Health Week, Christian Medical Association (www.cmawashington.org)
physicians say that human clone researchers would need every U.S. woman of
child-bearing age to bear the burden of supplying the one billion-plus eggs
required for embryonic stem cell therapy using human clones to treat just four
diseases.
In lobbying for legislation to allow human cloning, advocates have promoted
speculation about curing diseases such as ALS, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and
diabetes that affect a total of over 22 million patients.
"There is no proof that 'therapeutic cloning' will lead to cures, but if it did,
it would require 110 million women to donate 10 eggs each to gain enough eggs to
treat just these four diseases. That calculation assumes a success cloning rate
of 1 in 50. Dolly took 287 attempts. There are only 55 million women between
ages 18 and 44 in the US, so every woman would have to undergo two cycles of
hormonal hyper-stimulation and laparoscopic surgery," explains Dr. David
Stevens, Executive Director of the 16,000-member Christian Medical Association.
"That is worse than impractical. It is impossible."
Apparently, biotech industry leaders agree. In a Los Angeles Times article,
Geron Corp. President and CEO Thomas Okarma said he has no interest in using
cloned embryos to find treatments for disease, and that odds that cloning will
produce successful results are "vanishingly small," that the whole process is "a
nonstarter, commercially."
Lutz Giebel, CEO of San Diego's CyThera, says cloning "is not commercially
viable ... quality control is difficult, the FDA can't regulate it and no one
can afford the treatment." Giebel believes a complete ban on human cloning would
have a "limited impact on corporate product development."
Stevens responds, "Wouldn't it make more sense to direct our energies and
resources to adult stem cell research, which already is producing real cures for
real people? Why destroy human embryos, trample ethical and moral principles,
and put millions of American women at risk in pursuit of human clones?"
CMA, the nation's largest faith-based doctors' organization, opposes human
cloning on medical and ethical grounds and supports the Brownback-Landrieu
legislation, currently awaiting a Senate vote, that would ban all forms of human
cloning.
The Government Reform Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the U.S. House of
Representatives today is holding a 1 p.m. hearing on human cloning.
CONTACT: Margie Shealy of Christian Medical Association, +1-423-844-1000, or
e-mail, MAShealy@cmdahome.org
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