$250M Taxpayer Subsidized Stem Cell Institute Bill is Loan to Clone Scheme

New Jersey Right to Life
113 North Avenue West
Cranford, NJ 07016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Marie Tasy
Executive Director, 732 846-2000

$250 Million Taxpayer Subsidized Stem Cell Institute Bill is a Loan to Clone Scheme

May 18, 2006�

“On May 17, NJ Senate President Codey and a majority of NJ Senators advanced Big Biotech’s $250 Million ‘Loan to Clone’ Scheme which will result in the exploitation of women and the mass production of cloned human embryos and fetuses for use in destructive experimental research,� said Marie Tasy, Executive Director of New Jersey Right to Life. All this is being done at a time the state is facing a $4 Billion budget shortfall. Under this legislation, $150M will be spent on a stem cell research institute operated jointly by UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. UMDNJ is currently under a federal probe for “unethical and potentially illegal� activities involving the misspending of thousands in public funds.
New Jersey Right to Life asked the Committee to amend the bill to limit funding only to adult stem cell research because it does not involve cloning and killing human beings and is the only type of research that is producing cures. “The Senate and Assembly Committees both ignored our request and made it clear that they planned to pursue unethical stem cell research even though it has not produced one cure,� said Tasy. Ms. Tasy said that the Biotech Industry is pushing for state and federal funding of cloning and embryonic stem cell research not because they believe it will yield human treatments, but because they stand to make a lot of money. Tasy explained that a 1980 law known as Bayh-Dole allows researchers to form biotech companies to develop patents jointly held with their university or sell patents to pharmaceutical firms. “This legislation and the push behind it has always been about money and not about cures,� said Tasy.

“The Biotech Industry has manufactured baseless statistics and claims of economic benefits and miracle cures to try to garner political and public support for their shameful and misleading campaign to obtain taxpayer subsidized funding for embryonic stem cell research and cloning. The Senators who caved into the demands of the Biotech Industry and voted for this morally bankrupt scheme should be held accountable for their irresponsible actions.�

“Under a 2003 NJ law which established the framework for the type of research to be performed within the walls of these Institutes, researchers will have absolute authority to clone and kill human beings through the embryo, fetal and newborn stages for their organs, parts and tissues. Embryonic stem cell research has not cured one single human being, has been known to cause immune rejection and dangerous cancerous tumors when injected in animals. Studies show the risk of tumor formation and genetic changes increase the longer the embryonic stem cells are grown.

Since it is highly unlikely that there are enough left over embryos from NJ fertility treatments to meet the demands of researchers, there is a very real potential for exploiting NJ women, especially poor and minority women who will be offered financial incentives to donate their eggs for cloning research. The list of dangerous health effects reported from the large amounts of hormones used in the egg extraction procedure include memory loss, liver disorders, early osteoporosis, ovarian cancer and death.

“S1471 will advance egregious medical research abuses of human beings. The NJ Senate’s approval of this bill is a shameful disgrace,� said Tasy. Tasy said New Jersey Right to Life will score this vote as well as any Assembly action that may take place on this bill and make this information available to the public.