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Hi all - I've just returned from the fifth meeting of the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Xenotransplantation (SACX) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Washington. Our goal is to set Federal guidelines and policies in the field of Informed Consent for xenotransplantation. IC is basically the process of educating patients and their families about medical procedures they may be contemplating AND obtaining legal permission to perform those procedures. It is very complex, especially in highly experimental surgeries like xenotransplantation. I am happy to report that the Working Group made considerable progress towards our goal. I am the only xeno patient on this government panel. It is my job to give a patient's viewpoint of this particular surgery. For those of you who are not familiar with this case (the implantation of neural pig cells into my brain - September 1996) please go to URL <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/jimcfinn/"> http://www.geocities.com/jimcfinn/</A> to learn more about this emerging technology and its potential treatment for Parkinson's Disease. Feel free to write with any questions - Jim Finn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn