As the effects of a stop on government funding for human embryonic stem cell research continue to reverberate, medical researchers are taking a stand.
In a full page ad that will appear 3 September in the Washington Post, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) urges Congress to pass legislation ensuring federal funding for stem cell research. Signed by the deans of 75 medical colleges, the ad states that “unless this research is allowed to resume immediately, important momentum will be lost.”
The ad lists many of the diseases that could potentially receive treatment with stem cell therapy, including Parkinson’s, diabetes, Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), and cancer.
Many deans thought it was important to send a message to policy makers that they were concerned with of the 23 August decision by District-Court Judge Royce Lamberth, says Tony Mazzaschi, Senior Director of Scientific Affairs at the AAMC. “The seriousness of the situation required a serious response,” he adds.
“With the value of stem cell research to our patients, we all feel strongly that anything that can be done legally would be useful,” says one of the ad’s signatories, Robert Alpern, Dean of the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
Legal actions against the injunction are moving forward. Mazzaschi says that the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR) is currently submitting a brief challenging the court’s decision.
Click on image for larger view
Previously:
Court appeal aims to shield existing stem cell grants