Ladies and Gentlemen:

This is a very eloquent and thoughtful editorial. There is a need to get
this message to the American public.  We need to keep the pressure on the
Bush Administration.  What about a march on Washington?  All those diseased
and sick people who would benefit from Stem Cell Research should rise as
one.  We should go with our wheelchairs and walkers and show them we mean
business.  They will be able to see first hand the suffering that goes on
with those less fortunate with their health. Perhaps Michael Clayees would
give his two cents worth on whether this is something we could organize in a
brief amount of time.  We need to do it before the Republicans discontinue
stems cell research.  I fear it is coming sooner than later.  If everyone is
serious about making a statement we can pull this off.  I am going to start
training right now by taking a long walk.

Maybe everyone thinks this is a stupid idea.  But, it certainly would make
the evening news and front page of every newspaper across the country.  MJ
Fox and Muhamed Ali and Janet Reno could be placed at the front of the
march.   What do you say people?   Let's go for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gregory E. Leeman 40-30-28

-----Original Message-----
From: Parkinson's Information Exchange Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Linda J Herman
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2001 10:48 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: stem cell editorial

Editorial from Science magazine, April 27, 2001

The following editorial has a good, understandable explanation of the
difference types of stem cells and why all research should continue to be
funded.
Linda

" Disappearing Stem Cells, Disappearing
 Science

 Irving L. Weissman and David Baltimore
Irving L. Weissman is professor of Pathology and Developmental Biology at
Stanford University, Stanford, CA. David Baltimore is Nobel Laureate in
Physiology or Medicine and president of the California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena, CA.

" Soon the Bush administration will decide the fate of human
 embryonic stem cell (ESC) research at U.S. government-funded
 institutions, and the outcome of that decision will greatly influence
 the role of ESC science in human developmental biology around
 the world. But although the forces that science brings to this field
 are powerful, the future of ESC research will largely be
 determined by other interests: politics, organized religion,
 commerce, the legal community, and patient advocacy groups.
 The decision-making process needs to develop a policy that is
 fact-based and serves the best interests of society as well as
 science.

 Broadly, stem cells are rare cells that renew themselves and, in
 addition, give rise to differentiated cells. Some, from adult tissues,
have multiple but usually restricted  developmental potency:
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), for example, normally make only blood
cells; multipotent brain stem cells make only brain cells. ESCs, in
contrast, are derived from cells  isolated from the inner cavity of the
blastocyst: an early embryo that cannot develop further unless it
 successfully implants in the uterus. These cells are pluripotent: Given
an encouraging environment,  they can develop into any cell type;
although so far in culture they have been unable to form whole  organs,
much less bodies.

 It would be convenient if pluripotent cells persisted into adulthood.
Unfortunately, most (but not all)  published accounts suggesting adult
stem cell pluripotency have not successfully established that one  type
can produce a cell of another tissue type. Indeed, although HSCs capable
of regenerating the  blood can be isolated from adults or fetuses, so far
brain stem cells capable of robust growth and
 transplantability have come only from fetal or ESC sources. This is
likely to be true for a number of  tissues; fetal stem cells are much
more active than postneonatal cells. A moratorium on research  and/or
transplantation of fetal stem cells could thus be devastating. As for the
search for pluripotent  adult stem cells, it is always possible, perhaps
even likely, that further research might reveal a source.
 But that is simply a hope, and it would be foolish to abandon the surer
path for the unproven one.

 The greatest mysteries of human development lie in the time interval
between the early blastocyst  embryo and the much later point at which
organs are formed. What is needed is a thorough  understanding of the
cellular and genetic events that make the organs and tissues from these
pluripotent cells. That can come only from a broad-scale attack on the
problem from all kinds of  researchers, whether in academic, nonprofit,
or commercial organizations. The outcome will surely
 have profound effects on medicine, science, and translational research.
Yet these advances that could  be gained from human ESC research are
currently restricted in the United States to the single  commercial
entity that holds the patents for the ESCs developed using its own
funding. That is a disturbing anomaly, but it can be remedied by a
decision to approve ESC research by government-funded entities.

 Decisions to approve ESC research have been recently undertaken in
several other countries, notably Germany and the United Kingdom, where
government sought advice from a broad range of  concerned interests. Not
only does that provide a constructive example to our administration, it
underscores another consequence of the wrong decisions here. Failure to
make this research
 opportunity available in the United States will make those countries
centers of the scientific, medical, and commercial advances in which we
ought to be a contributing partner.

 Plainly, scientists alone should not make the decisions about the
ethical conduct of their work or about its social applications. It is
appropriate that governments, with appropriate public input, define the
societal interest in particular lines of research. But in making those
policies, the state should minimize purely political considerations and
be mindful of the separation of church and state. The
 wrong action here could close the door to an important avenue of
scientific and clinical discovery.
 The state should not be the barrier to the translation of these
potentially revolutionary therapeutic opportunities into real medical
advances."

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