Stem Cell: [StemCellInformation] SEND ONE EMAIL-- TO PROTECT CALIFORNIA’S STEM CELL PROGRAM

Sunday, August 3, 2008

[StemCellInformation] SEND ONE EMAIL-- TO PROTECT CALIFORNIA’S STEM CELL PROGRAM

SEND ONE EMAIL-- TO PROTECT CALIFORNIA'S STEM CELL PROGRAM

Dear Friend of Stem Cell Research:

I ask you to send one email to eight people, the members of the California Senate Rules Committee.

Here is a suggested email. Feel free to use any part of it. At the top of the letter, put:

Your name, address, and phone number, (They need to know you are a real person):

RE: Opposition to Senate Bill 1565 (Kuehl,Runner).

Dear Senator:

As a (state your reason for supporting stem cell research, for example, as the father of a paralyzed young man) I strongly oppose Senate Bill 1565, (Kuehl,Runner).

Please be aware that Senate Bill 1565 has been changed since you voted on it. The bill now contains a poison pill amendment, offered by Senator George Runner, a known opponent of the California stem cell research program. The Runner amendment not only defies the will of the voters, but may violate the California Constitution.

First, here is our stem cell program's current law, which was enacted by the electorate, and written into the California State Constitution:

"(C) … a high priority shall be placed on funding pluripotent stem cell and progenitor cell research that cannot, or is unlikely to, receive timely or sufficient federal funding…Other research categories…shall not be funded by the institute."

--Article XXXV of the California Constitution: Section 5, Chapter 3. California Stem Cell Research and Cures Bond Act, Article 1. 125290.60.

As you know, our stem cell program may only be amended to "…enhance the ability of the institute to further the purposes of…the measure…"—Section 8, Amendments.

And Senator Runner's amendment, recently added to SB 1565?

"(D) "Notwithstanding paragraph (C), any other scientific and medical research and technologies and/or any stem cell research proposal not actually funded by the institute under subparagraph (C) may be funded by the institute..."

This turns our program upside down! Proposition 71 was enacted by the voters to give priority to forms of stem cell research not likely to be funded by the federal government. The Runner amendment removes that priority, and would instead allow precious research dollars to be spent on "any other scientific and medical technologies". That could be almost anything; a bedpan is a piece of medical technology.

How can such a complete reversal be said to "further the purposes" of our stem cell program? Such seeming violations of the Constitution are almost certain to invite legal actions; have we not had enough lawsuits, enough delays?

The original intention of SB 1565, to guarantee access of stem cell therapies to the uninsured, has already been achieved, and without the need for this bill. Bill author Senator Sheila Kuehl, a highly respected legislator, has publicly stated that she and CIRM (California Institute for Regenerative Medicine) are "on the same page" regarding how low-income residents could receive benefits from CIRM-developed products.

But the Runner amendment could gut the California stem cell program.

Those who know, oppose. SB 1565 is opposed by the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, which is a board of more than 80 medical, educational, and disease advocacy groups: as well as every other stem cell research support group which has taken a position on the issue.

On behalf of every California family with a loved one suffering from chronic disease or disability, I urge your "NO" vote on Senate Bill 1565, when it comes before you for concurrence.

Thank you.

YOUR NAME

Below are the email addresses. If you have time, also consider calling to leave a message (just say your name, and that you want the Senator to know you are in strong opposition to Senate Bill 1565), and best of all, a letter or fax. (Full contact information follows.)

Write your letter, cut and paste it for each of the following Senators. (use any part of the sample letter you wish). Remember (for those as computer challenged as myself) you can just put the cursor on the email address and then press control click, and you will go right to the email with the address already done for you. Or, if you are really stressed for time, type all the emails into the address box and one letter to all. Individually is better, but anything is better than nothing.

Don Perata

Senator.Perata@sen.ca.gov

Leland Yee

Senator.Yee@sen.ca.gov

Gloria Romero

Senator.Romero@sen.ca.gov

Carole Migden

Senator.Migden@sen.ca.

Jim Battin

Jim.Battin@sen.ca.gov

Gilbert Cedillo

senator.cedillo@sen.ca.gov

Robert Dutton

senator.dutton@sen.ca.gov

Alex Padilla

senator.padilla@senate.ca.gov

How you contact them is up to you. But consider this: if these Senators do not hear from the stem cell research support community, SB 1565 will absolutely pass—and we will be faced with a much larger and more difficult battle to undo the changes that will be thrown at us—at a time when we should be focusing our efforts at the national level.

For more information, go to www.stemcellbattles.com.

Thank you,

Don C. Reed

Co-chair, Californians for Cures

Sponsor, Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act

Vice President, Public Policy, Americans for Cures

Here is full contact information.

Don Perata

Senator.Perata@sen.ca.gov

Capitol Office

State Capitol, Room 205
Sacramento, CA 95814

Fax (916) 327-1997