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The Boston Globe Stem cell debate: The view from disease sufferers By Anjetta Mcqueen, Associated Press, 7/9/2001 14:09 WASHINGTON (AP) Diabetes robbed Adam Singer of the ability to open a jar of juice for his young sons. The 41-year-old Singer also knows the disease could kill him. But he's fought diabetes for 23 years and he's ready to fight five or 10 more, convinced that embryonic stem cell research will be cleared for federal funding and some day be used to cure him. ''The disease deteriorates the body nice and slowly,'' said Singer, a commercial real estate agent from Potomac, Md., near Washington. ''It seems to me that it's an easy choice to make take a shot at saving lives and making life easier for people.'' But the moral questions over supporting stem cell research are hardly easy for everyone. Ron Heagy has spent two decades in a wheelchair; his view is different from Singer's. ''I'm not opposed to walking again. I'm just opposed to the process,'' says Heagy, 39, a quadriplegic motivational speaker who runs an Oregon camp for disabled youth. He told Congress he opposed federal money for embryonic stem cell research even if that research meant the eventual repair of his spinal cord, damaged in a surfing accident when he was a teen-ager. At issue are the master cells found in embryos that can generate all the other tissues of the body. Scientists believe if doctors could learn how to control stem cells, they possibly could cure diseases like Alzheimer's, diabetes, or Parkinson's, or even repair spinal cords. Abortion opponents find it unacceptable because to harvest the stem cells requires the death of an embryo, which many regard as human life. Since 1996, the government has banned federal funding of research that would harm, damage or destroy human embryos. But the Clinton administration decided in 1999 to allow federal money to pay for stem cell projects as long as the cells were extracted by researchers not receiving federal funds. President Bush will soon decide whether to reverse the Clinton administration compromise. Singer continues to have faith in a science that ''I'll never understand even if someone sits me down for a week.'' Scientists believe that embryonic stem cells, more flexible than those extracted from fully developed humans, could renew ailing organs or prevent ailments, once researchers study them enough to figure out what causes certain cells to become abnormal and cause a malady in the first place. Joan Samuelson was a trial lawyer with a busy practice until Parkinson's disease hit in her 30s. The brain disorder caused her left hand to shake so badly in court that she'd sit on it to keep her tremors from influencing juries against her clients. Samuelson, now 51, has taken regular doses of synthetic dopamine for a decade. She dreams of a day when stem cells could be developed into replacements for the failed neurons in her brain that no longer produce enough dopamine, a chemical that translates information into movement. Roughly 1 million Americans have Parkinson's' disease. ''What I need is brain repair,'' said Samuelson, of Healdsburg, Calif., who's now a full-time Parkinson's' activist. ''The medication is believed to accelerate cell deterioration. So you're making a bit of a deal with the devil.'' Samuelson and Singer generally disagree with assertions that an embryo a pencil dot-size clump of cells should have full individual rights and therefore be shielded from the research. But they say moral questions carry some weight and any decision on stem cell research deserves careful debate. ''I can't tell anyone that they're wrong for how they feel on this issue,'' said Singer. Says Samuelson: ''I'm sick and desperate and in need of rescue, but I'm also an ethical person.'' On the Net: National Institutes of Health information: http://www.nih.gov/news/stemcell Juvenile Diabetes Foundation: http://www.jdf.org/ Ron Heagy: http://www.goron.com/ Parkinson's Action Network: http://www.parkinsonsaction.org/index.html Source: The Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/dailynews/190/wash/Stem_cell_debate_The_view_from:.shtml * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn