The source of this article is The Winchester Star: http://tinyurl.com/4tovz

Divided Politics, One Goal 

By Michael N. Graff 
The Winchester Star 
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BERRYVILLE — Heredity may or may not deal Billie Casey the short straw. 


Billie and Charles Casey plan to vote for different candidates in the presidential election, but they strongly agree on one thing: the need for research into the possibilities offered by stem-cell research. Billie’s mother, Gladys Brown (in photo), died of Alzheimer’s disease — a condition that they feel could be alleviated by scientific study with stem cells. 
(Photo by Jeff Taylor)
  
Her mother, Gladys Brown, suffered and eventually died from Alzheimer’s disease, the slow-gripping affliction that shreds decades worth of memories in a matter of years. 

Alzheimer’s doesn’t always follow the genetic trail, but people whose parent or sibling develops the disease are two to three times more likely to develop it, according to research. 

That, Billie says, is reason enough to be proactive. 

With a background in medical technology, she has learned all about the disease, its stages, its levels, and what work could be done in research. 

But there is one unknown variable, a tempting possibility that has become one of the most politically inflammatory issues of this presidential election — embryonic stem-cell research. 

At 68, Billie knows she has a little time. Her mother didn’t develop Alzheimer’s until her late 70s. 

But on Tuesday’s Election Day, Billie isn’t hesitating to vote for Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic challenger who has said he would restore federal funding for the research. 

This year, nothing else matters. 

“I’ve always been for any kind of research,” Billie says. “That’s how we learn. When I see the things we could learn from stem-cell research, that’s how we need to go.” 

Charles Casey, Billie’s husband, isn’t as strict on his voting lines. His feelings about the war on terrorism will lead him to vote for President Bush on Tuesday. 

But he adamantly opposes the president’s choice to put restrictions on federally funded research on embryonic stem cells. 

Charles said he needs to remember back only two years — when he and Billie lived with Gladys as her condition deteriorated — to realize the importance of the research. 

“I don’t think we know it would help for sure,” Charles says. “But it’s a possibility.” 

———

Several high-profile celebrities have pushed the divisive issue even closer to the forefront this year. 

Actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson’s disease, sat in the front row during one of the recent presidential debates, next to Kerry’s wife, Teresa. 

Former President Reagan died of Alzheimer’s disease in June, stirring a family debate over the research. 

Reagan’s son, Ron, strayed from his Republican background and delivered a speech at the Democratic National Convention in support of the research. But the former president’s other son, Michael, is opposed to the research because of religious beliefs. 

And most recently, actor Christopher Reeve — best known as Superman — died after spending nine years as arguably the most famously active quadriplegic in the world. 

Reeve, who suffered a spinal cord injury after falling off a horse in 1995, was a tireless advocate of stem-cell research. 

———

The Caseys, who live in Berrvyille, don’t need a famous anecdote to convince them. They saw it every day. 

Like all people with Alzheimer’s, Gladys Brown tried her best to hide it. 

She’d scurry to work on something else when she had a visitor. She sat silent and smiling during simple conversations. 

But the disease slowly firmed up its grip, snatching nearly all of her memory before she died in 2002 at 85. 

Those who knew Gladys best weren’t fooled for long. In her heyday, Gladys was vibrant and outspoken. And suddenly, she couldn’t balance her checkbook. 

“They don’t want people to know they’re forgetting,” Billie says. 

After one experience with Alzheimer’s, the Caseys have a genuine fear of enduring it again. 

It gives them true membership in the Unitarian faith, which says religious authority shouldn’t be based on a book, but on personal experience and reasoning. 

“Can you imagine seeing your mother like that?” Billie asks. “It tears you up. Some members of the family cannot endure it. Some cannot be around it.” 

———

Billie, who has two sisters, spent her career in the medical field. 

She and Charles met while the two worked at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland — Billie was a medical laboratory director and Charles worked in the business side of the organization. 

Both realize little factual evidence about stem-cell research can help with Alzheimer’s and other diseases. The Bush administration says proponents of the research are misleading people suffering from the ailments. 

The embryos used for embryonic stem-cell research are produced through in-vitro fertilization — which involves fertilizing an egg in a Petri dish, waiting for the egg to mature a few days, and then placing it into the womb. 

Doctors keep extra embryos in storage as backups, but most couples decide not to use them. 

But it brings up the age-old debate — and all of its religious arguments — about life’s starting point, and whether the research would be science or murder. 

The debate even touches the Casey family. Their son doesn’t believe in stem-cell research, even though he knows the likelihood of Alzheimer’s developing in his mother. 

“People have different ideas about whether an embryo should be treated like a living person, which is a weighty question,” Charles says. “But we’re dealing with real-live people with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.” 
 

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