 |
 |
In a message dated 8/7/01 4:53:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time [log in to unmask] wrote: <<As a potential patient, how many different kinds of tissue would you want from any cells that have been selected for your benefit? See Science News, July 7, 2001, Vol. 160 No. 1, Page 13, concerning cells in a lab that were supposed to be making a chicken head started instead to make a heart?>> In a message dated 8/7/01 5:07:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time [log in to unmask] wrote: <<Why? If any of you ever judged Grade School and High school Science Fair Projects, you too, like me, must wonder what ever became of the obvious cheaters with their shameless, nonsensical efforts later in life. A good question for a "waiting" party to ask is: "How long will it take? More likely, twenty years? Or, more likely 5 years?">> Ed, Some of the more scientifically inclined PIEN members need to come to our (and Bob's) rescue and do a better job than I did of explaining why embryonic stem cells are more important in research than adult stem cells. I have not even so much as judged a grade school science fair, but I'm willing to bet that the cheaters in yours are now doing something other than biomedical research. Your first message seemed to answer your second. Researchers need to follow the development of embryonic stem cells so they know why some turn into heads and others turn into hearts. Correct me if I've misinterpreted your concerns, but it seems like you're assuming that there's a straight and narrow path toward the cure for PD (that can be covered in a specific amount of time) and that people who are trying to research embryonic stem cells are wasting time when they should be focusing on adult stem cells, which to you seem to hold the key to success. I wish you were right and that all we need to do is urge researchers onto that path. I don't think it's going to be that simple, and I'm just as frustrated as you are about that. When I was diagnosed four years ago, I was told that the cure was only 10 years away. They're still saying that today. The truth is that we are still going to need some lucky breaks (like the ones we've had already -- e.g. the group who all got PD from the same designer drug and the entire family in Italy which had PD) before a cure(s) is discovered. It's also true that the harder you work, the luckier you get. We need to support research on all fronts with every effort that we can make if we are ever to find a cure. If we eliminate options (especially because they are not politically popular), we would only set ourselves back. Many discoveries are made by accident or while the discoverers were looking for something else. The surest way to failure is to make an inflexible plan. Since embryonic stem cells hold out so many more possibilities for "surprises" than adult ones do, we would be foolish to let a small group of fanatics have them taken out of the federally funded research labs. Rees Jenkins ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn