Here is a great article by Fox from the NY Times.
Please read
:
A Crucial Election for Medical Research
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/01/opinion/01MFOX.html
November 1, 2000
By MICHAEL J. FOX
As a Parkinson's disease
patient and a new American citizen, I look
forward to Election Day as
something momentous: It's not just the
first presidential race in which I can
vote (I was born in Canada).
The outcome is likely to have a dramatic bearing
on my prognosis
and that of millions of Americans whose lives have been
touched by
Parkinson's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, spinal cord
injury,
Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease and other
devastating
illnesses. That's because one question that may be decided
on
Tuesday is whether stem cell research which holds the best
hope
of a cure for such diseases will be permitted to go
forward.
Campaign aides to George W. Bush, who has not publicly
addressed
the issue, stated on several occasions that a Bush
administration
would overturn current National Institutes of Health guideines
and
ban federal funding for stem cell research. Why? Because the
research,
which uses human embryos discarded from fertility
clinics, has become
enmeshed in the politics of abortion. Mr. Bush
favors a ban on stem cell
research, one aide said, "because of his
pro-life views."
Yet
stem cell research has nothing to do with abortion. It is not
the same as
fetal tissue research, the federal funding of which was
banned by Presidents
Reagan and Bush (but has since been authorized
by Congress). Stem cell work
uses undifferentiated cells extracted
from embryos just a few days
old embryos produced during in vitro
fertilization, a process
that creates many more fertilized eggs
than are implanted in the wombs of
women trying to become pregnant.
Currently, more than 100,000 embryos are
frozen in storage. Most of
these microscopic clumps of cells are destined to
be destroyed
ending any potential for life.
Their potential for
saving lives, however, may be unlimited. Given
the proper signal or
environment, stem cells, transplanted into
human tissue, can be induced to
develop into brain, heart, skin,
bone marrow cells indeed, any
specialized cells. The scientific
research community believes that the
transplanted stem cells may be
able to regenerate dead or dying human tissue,
reversing the
progress of disease. According to Cure, a coalition of 28
groups
representing patients with cancer, Parkinson's, paralysis and
other
maladies, "no research in recent history has offered as much
hope"
for cures.
Support for stem-cell research comes not just
from pro-choice
Democrats like Al Gore but also from Republicans who
have
concluded, in the words of former Senator Bob Dole, that
supporting
such research is "the pro-life position to take."
The
list includes Republican senators like Strom Thurmond of South
Carolina, John
McCain of Arizona, Connie Mack of Florida and Pete
Domenici of New Mexico.
Even Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon, who
the National Right to Life Committee
says voted "the right way" on
abortion every time last year, supports the
research. His family
has experience with the ravages of Parkinson's disease,
and he has
concluded, "Part of my pro-life ethic is to make life better
for
the living."
This is the real compassionate conservatism.
One hopes that
between now and next Tuesday, Mr. Bush will explain to those
of us
with debilitating diseases indeed, to all of us
why it is more
pro-life to throw away stem cells than to put them to work
saving
lives.
Michael J. Fox, the actor, is active in organizations
working to
combat Parkinson's disease.
The New York Times
on the Web
http://www.nytimes.com
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