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Hollywood is finally adding its voice to the fight to pass legislation for stem cell research. Last year, two couples, Jerry Zucker [director of Ghost and Rat Race] & Janet Zucker [producer of Rat Race] and Douglas Wick [Academy-Award winning producer of Gladiator and Stuart Little] & Lucy Fisher [former Vice Chairman of the Columbia Tristar Motion Picture Group], founded CuresNow. CuresNow, which stands for Citizens United for Research and Ethics in Science, describes itself as "an alliance of patient groups, concerned paretns and leaders in scientific, business, entertainment and religious communities." Their mission is to advocate for the advancement in stem cell research and technology in regenerative medicince.
CuresNow goal at the moment is defeating bnill S.1899, sponsered by Sens. Sam Brownback (R-KA) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA). S.1899 abns all cloning, which includes the life-saving therapeutic cloning, also called somatic cell nuclear transfer, which is used in the creation of stem cells.
Somatic cell nuclear transfer is a technique where the nucleus from the patient's skin cell is removed adn placed into an unfertilized egg cell that also has its nucleus removed. From this, scientists create stem cells, which have the ability to become any cell in the body. From brain cells for Parkinson's disease to islet cells from diabetics, stem cells have the ability to cure disease that affect over 100 million Americans.
CuresNow hopes to allow this research to move forward and has partnered up with the Coaltion for the Advancement of Medical Research, or CAMR.
"Somatic cell nuclear transfer may prove to be a vital tool in allowing scientists to fully develop the promise of stem cell research," said Michael Manganiello, the President of CAMR.
The Brownback-Landrieu bill proposes the ban of all research in cloning, including banning citizens from travelling to other countries to receives treatments and then returning to the United States. The bill wants to criminalize the research, sending any researchers to jail.
"It's important to know how severe this bill is and how much these people want to cut off any access to this process," said Jerry Zucker, co-founder and director of Airplane and Rat Race.
In an effort to defeat S.1899, and passing a new bill sponsered by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA), CuresNow created two new commericials using the characters "Harry & Louise", from the Health Insurance Assocation ads used against the Clinton Health Care reform proposal in 1993-1994.
Zucker, who directed the commericals, believed that the ads would work because they were familiar characters with a simple message.
"We could extra publicity because the news media would catch on to it and it would create a stir because of what these people had done in terms of the Clinton Healthcare policy," Zucker said. "[S.1899] tried to put [reproductive and therapeutic cloning] all together and make it sound like the same thing. So wahte we did is separate it. We said, 'Hey, we can be against cloning and still do life-saving research."
CuresNow has received support from the Hollywood community as well. People in the entertainment world have donated time and money to the cause. Actors like Mary Tyler Moore, Christopher Reeve, and Micahel J. Fox have all testifed on behalf of stem cell research.
CuresNow's founders have had movie premieres benefitting juvenile diabetes, sicne each couple has a daughter wtih juvenile [Type 1] diabetes. Now, CuresNow is moving on to promoting stem cell research adn therapeutic cloning.
"We're making this a Hollywood cause," Zucker said.