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

/-----------------------------------------------------------------\