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To David: I have read the bone marrow article and understand the potential of the T-cell research. Your comment re: your friend with heart transplant is true re: the possibility of rejection and the powerful meds that one must consume to prevent rejection and suppress the immune system. However, please do not try to encourage people to lobby to stop research and medical care that will support the transplant progress that we have today. Some people, because of religious and cultural beliefs, will not accept or donate organs for transplant. I respect their view and their choice. However, do not ask me (or anyone else) to give up our beliefs and willingness to try. The people who are alive today with transplanted organs would not survive long enough to have a T-cell graft, transplant, or the gene therapy that is needed to make the bone marrow graft function. The transplant today is a last ditch effort for the patients who receive the organs.....without the transplant death is imminent within a relatively short time period. I speak from experience. My 29 month old grandson told me today that he had been to a "big pool" (the ocean!) this week. We are joyously celebrating the first anniversary of his second transplanted liver this month. Griffin has a very rare inherited (autosomal recessive...both parents must have the recessive gene) metabolic disorder that destroyed his original liver before he was a year old (Glycogen Storage Disease IV/Andersen's Disease). At the time of his first transplant (July 1999) his blood would no longer clot, he could not hold his head upright, he could not pull himself to his feet because of muscle damage. His food intake was quite limited because his grossly enlarged liver interfered with function of abdominal organs. He had not gained an ounce of good tissue in almost 8 months (his liver accounted for the small weight gain he did have) His first transplanted liver survived for almost a month. During that time period he gained 4 pounds of good tissue (when you only weigh 18 pounds this is a great deal of weight!) his blood was clotting before he left the OR. Granted he is on powerful immune suppressant drugs. He has bloodwork twice a week to monitor/maintain his transplant, he has experienced three periods of mild rejection, he has had seven surgeries and as our daughter will admit "he has been to hell and back 15 times in his short life". He was in the hospital from July through October 1999. He has had only 7 days in the hospital since.. (And is fortunatel to have an HMO that has paid exorbitant medical bills to date). Today he is running, jumping, playing, laughing and well entrenched in the terrible two's. The technology is still growing today to support transplants. Thousands of people are dependent on this research. Let it be. Later today my husband will be on the west coast and will give this little bundle of energy a big hug......without transplantation, and its many flaws in inexistance today, Grandpa would be visiting the grave of his adorable grandson. The need for organ donors is great. 16,000 people are waiting for livers today. 6,000 of those people will die this year because an organ is not available. Families will mourn those victims. 10,000 will receive livers and go on to lead productive lives and participate in the ongoing research to help us find other ways to cope while waiting for gene therapy and t-cell transplants. Rita Weeks 55/10