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Stem Cell Science ... Nancy Reagan's Emotional Plea For Freer Research Detroit Free Press, MI - May 12, 2004 Perhaps the quiet voice of the wife of one of his political heroes will get President George W. Bush to bend. Former first lady Nancy Reagan certainly appeals to one of Bush's most espoused values -- compassion -- as she makes the case for stem cell research. On the page to your right, read the text of the brief but moving speech Reagan delivered last weekend on a subject she knows painfully well. For at least a decade she has watched, impotent, as Alzheimer's disease robbed her of her husband of 52 years, Republican icon Ronald Reagan. Nancy Reagan recognizes that embryonic stem cell research could hold the key not only to preventing Alzheimer's but Parkinson's, diabetes and other chronic and debilitating diseases. But Bush, who has let abortion politics drive so many of his policies, limited federal funding for stem cell research to lines that existed before he announced that decision in 2001. Those have proved to be of at best limited use in advancing this important research. Other lines that hold the cures to countless diseases have been left untapped under the misguided notion that to extract life-saving cells from embryos is murder. Isolated in labs, never to be implanted, these embryos will not become human beings. They should not be cast aside when they hold potential to improve and extend so many lives, to help develop cures that, like former President Reagan, now seem out of reach. The intensely private Nancy Reagan took to a public stage Saturday to express her well-known view -- a position shared not only by the Hollywood celebrities who raised $2 million for the cause, but also more than 250 members of Congress. If Bush doesn't respond to oral and written pleas to expand stem cell research and funding, one of the legislators should offer a bill to do so. Call it Reagan's Law. Then maybe the president will listen. The draft bill is still subject to public review. It is expected to be made law later this year. SOURCE: Detroit Free Press, MI - May 12, 2004 http://www.freep.com/voices/editorials/estem12_20040512.htm * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn