Below is a portion of a Concerned Women for America article claiming the
superiority of ASCRs over ESCRs and specifically the Dennis Turner PD
experience and my email exchange with CWA's Pam Wong.
My answer to Pam Wong's query:
Dear Ms. Wong:

 I talked to Turner by phone on March 22, 2006 and he confirmed that his
Parkinson's symptoms  were worse than ever.  When I saw him and Sen.
Brownback about a year ago on video on computer of the Senate hearing, his
head was shaking, but he did say he would like Dr. Levesque to repeat the
procedure.  On March 22 he was not as upbeat.  In fact he seemed somewhat
uncertain as to what had actually happened.  Dr. Levesque's Phase II is
stalled he opined due to lack of funds.  I heard from a source on my
Parkinson's List that it was due to not meeting certain standards, but don't
know for sure. I called Dr. Levesque's office 3 years ago before having my
DBS brain surgeries and was told their were "no guarantees" and was
encouraged to go for the DBS.  You have to be awake for this and some people
can't take it.  I am quite disabled so I  don't keep everything as my hands
are like paws, but I saw somewhere on computer that Dr. L took Turner's
brain cells during DBS, which might account for his improvement.

I can assure you that at the present time there are no treatments for
Parkinson's using adult stem cells.  I would know if there were.

I do not expect a cure from anything in my lifetime.  I support ALL stem
cell research, adult, embryonic, SCNT, OARNT, synthetic, etc.

Your contacts in bioethics are either hopelessly  ignorant or deliberately
lying.  I know "Concerned Women of America" like to make ESCR an abortion
issue and have been successful in stalling hESCR.  This is the reality I
live with.  What reason would anyone with Parkinson's possibly have to
reject treatment from adult stem  cells if it worked?  Sure a reprieve is
nice, but I want my life back. This is a life sentence and symptoms, disease
progression, and reaction to meds vary greatly with each of us prisoners.

Rayilyn Lee Brown


Ms. Lee,

I have taken some time to check into this, and my contacts in the area
of bioethics have no knowledge that Mr. Turner's symptoms have returned.
If you have read otherwise, we would most appreciate you sending the
link or documentation because we certainly want to be as up-to-date as
possible.

In his testimony, Dennis said that he and Dr. Levesque didn't know when
or if the tremors would return. Yet even if the treatment lasted only a
few years, it was well worth it to have those years with few symptoms,
and he was ready to be treated in the other half of his brain.

We would like to know if his symptoms or opinion on the treatment have
changed.

Sincerely,

Pamela Wong
Director of Publications
Concerned Women for America

From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sun 3/19/2006 7:54 PM
To: Geoff Putnam
Subject: Feedback from Site

Comments: Dennis Turner, the one person in the world to have his own
brain cells used to treat his Parkinson's, has had it return because the
cause of this disease is unknown.  Please take Parkinson's off your list
of diseases currently being treated by ASCs.  This is a great insult to
those of us who suffer from this insidious disease.

UserName: Rayilyn Brown
.
At end of this I have included my letter to 60 Minutes Story Editor.  It
would help if you would help me out.
                    Story Editor
                   60 MINUTES
                   CBS News
                   524 West 57 Street
                   New York, NY  10019

Excerpt from recent CWA article:
"Parkinson's disease
An Israeli company is testing a way to treat Parkinson's using a patient's
bone-marrow stem cells. The cells produce a chemical that restores a
patient's motor movement.46
Dennis Turner, who had suffered severe Parkinson's for many years, was
injected with modified stem cells extracted from his brain. For the next
five years his Parkinson's symptoms virtually disappeared and allowed him to
live a normal life.47
Researchers at the University of South Florida have reported that their
attempts to use fetal cell grafts to combat Parkinson's were completely
ineffective.48 "


My updated letter to 60 Minutes STEM CELL LIES

Opponents of embryonic stem cell research have been consistently lying about
adult stem cell "cures" for the past four years.

Being a Parkinson's disease prisoner for ten years I know there are no ASC
cures. The basis for their inclusion on a "Cures List" is the experience of
one man, Dennis Turner. About six years ago Dr. Michel Levesque of Cedars
Sinai in Los Angeles CA extracted some of Mr. Turner's own brain cells,
cultivated and multiplied them and implanted them back in his brain. Turner
enjoyed about a five year reprieve from his Parkinson's symptoms, but they
were apparent in a video of Senator Sam Brownback's hearing a year ago
touting the superiority of adult stem cell cures over embryonic stem cell
research.

I called (949-492-8618)Turner [log in to unmask] on March 22, 2006 and he
confirmed that he was worse than ever and that Dr. Levesque's Phase II of
this experiment is currently stalled probably due to lack of funds or
failure to meet other requirements.

When I called the Michigan Catholic Conference to try to get them to take
Parkinson's off their cure list they hung up on me. Since claims of spinal
cord injury "cures" are false as well, I'm wondering what else on the ASC
cures List being used by opponents of ESCR is also phony.

We who are severely disabled and/or suffering from horrendous diseases
desperately need the help of the media to help us get the truth out. While I
do not agree with opponents of ESCR that stem cells are people, I respect
their right to this opinion and non-participation in ESC research and
treatments that might result . However, lying about research that has been
done for the past 40 years and claiming its superiority over research that
has not yet been done needs to be exposed.

Thank you.

Rayilyn Brown

Surprise, AZ 85374

623-584-5869

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