From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Wed Feb 20 2002 - 15:27:54 MST
-----Original Message-----
From: RUDIHOFFMA@aol.com [mailto:RUDIHOFFMA@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 3:54 pm
To: mail@harveynewstrom.com
Subject: PLEASE DON'T BAN CLONING posting to cryonet, PLUS a small rant
Dear fellow cryoneters:
Bill Falloon and Saul Kent are doing some great things for cryonics as you
read this. They are, of course, the CEO's of Life Extension Foundation,
many of you may already be members. (At 75 bucks a year, includes TREMENDOUS
monthly magazine and discounts on food supplements/ anti-aging compounds,
and vitamins, a real bargain.) Go to lef.org for their great website.
Anyway, they have made it very easy to write your senator re: the current
cloning ban law currently in the Senate.
I have reproduced the letter which I wrote to about 25 senators below. It
is mostly from the LEF site. Except the ending, where I get a little nasty
and emotional, designed as a stronger close than the professional and
"understated" sample letter from LEF.
I may be professional. But few who read this list regularly would accuse me
of being "understated"! LOL!
Friends, the long awaited WAR has begun! I am referring to the oft
discussed tension between the forces of science, knowledge, technology, and
rationality Vs the forces of mythology, renouncement, "God did not intend
for man to do this," and the attitude that "I am not comfortable with the
possible ramifications of this, so I am going to lobby to criminalize your
even considering or researching possibilities."
The religious right has massive funding, television stations, and the
tremendous blind faith of the religiously deluded. This is a society where
it is considered a positive if you believe something just BECAUSE there is
NO evidence of it! This flawed but surprising effective epistemology has
engendered societies ruled by religious zealots throughout most of recorded
history.
But back to the task at hand. YOUR task. If you value the possibility of
therapeutic cloning research improving YOUR life in the next 3 or 5 or 10
years. Instead of the 15 or 20 or more which it could take if we allow the
U. S. government to CRIMINALIZE RESEARCH!
Please write your senator about this. Reprint the letter below, or reword
it.
Best and easiest, go to lef.org and utilize their already hypertexed email
addresses for senators.
Here is letter. The good parts are suggested or copied verbatim from LEF.
The ending diatribe is mine.
Dear Senator,
I urge you to vote AGAINST S. 790, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of
2001, sponsored by Kansas Republican Sam Brownback. Passage of this bill
would make it a criminal offense to conduct research on the development of
new therapies using stem cells derived from very early-stage cloned embryos.
It would greatly slow the development of therapeutic cloning, the most
promising new technology in medicine.
Therapeutic cloning involves the generation of young,
immunologically-identical cells, tissues, and organs for transplant. It has
the potential to cure killers such as heart disease, stroke, cancer,
Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, arthritis, and Parkinson's disease. It also
could be instrumental in the development of therapies to reverse the
infirmities and ravages of aging, leading to longer, healthier lives for
millions of Americans.
Most of the top scientists in the United States SUPPORT THERAPEUTIC CLONING
RESEARCH. These include Nobel laureates such as Dr. David Baltimore and Dr.
Harold Varmus and organizations such as the National Academy of Sciences.
(NAS), the National Institute of Health (NIH), and the Federation of
American Societies For Experimental Biology (FASEB.)
It is IMPERATIVE that you and your colleges understand the ENORMOUS
potential of THERAPEUTIC cloning research. Scientists who are conducting
this research, such as Dr. Michael West at Advanced Cell Technologies, are
HEROES. This legislation could make these researchers into criminals. This
is wrong.
There is a distinction between Therapeutic cloning and Reproductive cloning.
Even if it IS necessary to place a temporary moratorium on human
REPRODUCTIVE cloning, please don't criminalize THERAPEUTIC cloning research.
I would appreciate your response to this letter.
Sincerely Yours,
Rudi Hoffman
Member Financial Planner's Association, Certified Planner
Member ALCOR Life Extension Foundation
Member Libertarian Party
Member National Rifle Association
Member Extropy Foundation
Board Member Port Orange Chamber of Commerce
Board Member Daytona Salvation Army
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