----- Original Message -----
From: "rayilynlee" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: "Don C. Reed" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 9:28 AM
Subject: Re: Honesty


> Chris:
>
> I talked to Dennis Turner by phone last April 24, 2006 and he confirmed to
> me that his Parkinson's had returned with a vengeance.  He  is grateful
> for his "reprieve" but PD meds give Parkinson's people a "reprieve" of a
> few hours when they are "ON".  As time goes on the dyskinesias outweigh
> the benefits.  Medicine reduces symptoms for most people with Parkinson's.
>
> PD meds only helped me once and I had DBS brain surgery twice to help
> control my tremors.  Dr. Levesque did a DBS on Turner and that is when he
> took his brain cells.  It might account for his improvement but it is
> seldom mentioned.
>
> Do you think brain surgery will become a routine treatment?  You must be
> awake for this and some people are too old or just can't take it.   It is
> dangerous.
>
> Neither Turner nor I (although I do not speak for him) are grateful for
> "crumbs".  NEVER  have I seen it mentioned that Turner's PD has returned.
> Why is that?
>
> Embryonic stem cell research does not involve "fetal" cells - stop
> spinning this.  There are no people, babies or fetuses involved, but
> undifferentiated cells.
>
> Embryonic stem cell research has been only a possibility in hostile
> environment created by you since 1998.  Adult stem cell research has been
> around over 40 years.
>
> Also, if you believe ESCR is immoral it shouldn't matter which kind is
> "better".
>
> We need you to get out of the way of science so that all kinds of stem
> cell research can go forward.  And we don't need outright lies about ASCR.
>
> Rayilyn Brown
> Surprise AZ
> [log in to unmask]
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 7:09 AM
> Subject: Re: Honesty
>
>
>> 1045592  Ms. Rayilyn Brown
>>
>> Dear Rayilyn,
>>
>> Thank you for contacting Family Research Council regarding adult stem
>> cell treatments. We appreciate the time you have taken to share your
>> concerns with us.
>>
>> It is not the intent of FRC to portray adult stem cell therapies as
>> "cures", but adult stem cells have been used to successfully treat over
>> 70 different types of diseases and injuries. If you have not already done
>> so, please download or order our brochure, "Adult Stem Cell Treatments:
>> Nine Faces of Success" at http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=BC06I01. This
>> helpful brochure provides nine examples of individuals that have
>> benefited from adult stem cell treatments, including the story of Dennis
>> Turner. According to Dr. Michael Levesque, M.D., Dennis Turner's
>> Parkinson's symptoms were reduced by 80% after he was treated with his
>> own adult neural stem cells. While we make no claim that Dennis Turner
>> was cured using adult stem cells, the reduction of symptoms represent a
>> great success.
>>
>> As you are undoubtedly aware, FRC opposes the harvesting of embryonic
>> stem cells for research. This process, explained in detail in our
>> brochure, "Stem Cell Research, Cloning & Human Embryos"
>> (http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=BC04C01) always requires the destruction of
>> human life. What is more, fetal tissue has actually not been very
>> successful at all in producing real treatments. After over 10 years of
>> research and 2 large controlled studies (one published in the New England
>> Journal of Medicine, one in Annals of Neurology) with Parkinson's
>> patients, they found that fetal cells provided no benefit to the
>> patients, and actually made 15-25% of them worse. Of course, the ethical
>> question about using aborted fetuses, and possibly encouraging abortion,
>> surrounds the use of fetal tissue.
>>
>> For embryonic stem cells, the researcher must actually destroy a living
>> embryo that is about 1 week old. It's true that all of our tissues come
>> from our embryonic stem cells back when we were embryos. But once the
>> embryo is destroyed and the cells put in the lab dish, the experimental
>> evidence has been anything but convincing. There is not yet a single
>> published paper that shows the researcher able to get all the cells in
>> the dish to form, for example, all nerve cells, or all heart cells, etc.
>> Instead there is a mixture of all types of cells. And when embryonic stem
>> cells are injected into experimental animals, there is a tendency to form
>> tumors, or a mixed mass of cells, and very few experiments have shown any
>> benefit to the animals with disease. Though embryonic stem cells may have
>> looked interesting theoretically, they are wild, untamed cells once
>> removed from the embryo.
>>
>> And while it is illegal to produce or abort a fetus (weeks old) to obtain
>> stem cells, it is perfectly legal to produce an embryo, by fertilization
>> or by cloning, and destroy it for its stem cells one week later.
>>
>> Current federal law restricts federal spending to human embryonic stem
>> cells that existed as of Aug 9, 2001, but there is no legal restriction
>> on creating and harvesting human embryos for stem cells, as long as other
>> funds are used. Most of the embryos currently used in research are from
>> fertility clinics, and these embryos were created to implant into a womb
>> for a live birth, and could still be given this chance at life, but there
>> are already several reported cases where researchers have created embryos
>> by fertilization or cloning to harvest their embryonic stem cells.
>>
>> Regarding adult stem cells, this field of investigation has been moving
>> very fast. There are now hundreds of published scientific papers that
>> show adult stem cells capable of surprising things of which we were
>> unaware just a few years ago. Unfortunately the public has not been given
>> this news, and even some scientists still hold to old dogma about adult
>> stem cells. It is no longer correct to say that adult stem cells can only
>> form a limited number of tissues, or that they are difficult to isolate
>> or to grow in culture. The evidence now shows that adult stem cells
>> (including cord blood stem cells) have great capacity to form other
>> tissues and to repair damaged tissues. These cells have convincingly been
>> shown in paper after paper to repair damaged tissue in animals, and now
>> in dozens of papers to repair damage in humans as well. Hundreds of
>> patients have been successfully treated for various conditions, including
>> sickle cell anemia, heart attack damage, stroke, Parkinson's, and spinal
>> cord injury. It is not yet a "cure"--these are beginning clinical trials
>> to test the effectiveness of adult stem cells--but they have been
>> successful when tested.
>>
>> You can read more about recent successes of adult stem cells in a paper
>> (with ample references) that our Senior Fellow for Life Sciences and the
>> Center for Human Life and Bioethics wrote recently for the President's
>> Council on Bioethics at
>> http://bioethics.gov/reports/stemcell/appendix_k.html
>> As he notes in one of the early paragraphs, many of the treatments are
>> not discussed in his paper because these were being reviewed by others,
>> but he still gives some of the references for those patient treatments.
>>
>> Also, you might check out the following website, which discusses adult
>> stem cell advances, written more for a general audience (but with
>> references):
>> http://www.stemcellresearch.org
>>
>> We hope this has helped, and if you have other questions, please feel
>> free to contact us.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Chris Marlink
>> FRC Correspondence
>>
>> --- Original Message --------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Ms. Rayilyn Brown
>> 18507 N Windfall Dr
>> Surprise, AZ 85374-8938
>> E-Mail:  [log in to unmask]
>> Subject:  Honesty
>> Date:  December  26, 2006
>>
>> Why are you so dishonest about adult stem cells and Parkinson's disease?
>> There are no adult stem cell cures and you know it. I have had
>> Parkinson's for over ten years, don't believe germ cells are people, and
>> think you are cruel, anti-science and uncaring about people who suffer.
>> But what really galls me is how you keep referring to Dennis Turner
>> without noting his Parkinson's has returned.
>>
>> Shouldn't honesty be on your list of ethical, family values behaviors?
>>
>>
>>
>

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