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i worked long and hard , hand-in-hand with my state representative (who is by-the-by a Republican) David Leitch to pass, celebrate, get the word out and helped impliment the nation's first cord blood law. Illinois was the first state to pass this no-brainer of a law, which requires that all pregnant women be asked during their second trimester by their OB if they would like to donate the cord blood (the umbilical cord and the afterbirth) to be used for medical research rather than be incinerated as waste. while these are not the embryonic stem cells that we are all waiting for the laws to change to allow to be used for research, in the meantime, it is a good thing to get behind and to have passed in your home state. it is not controversial, everybody wins with this. since the inception of this program, illinois has collected tens of thousands of cord blood samples and gotten scores of usable "juvinelle" stem cells. my friend and Bradley University researcher and professor has made the most of what is available to him and had numerous breakthroughs using cord blood stem cells, sure, he'd like to get embryonic stem cells and feels that it is beyond reason to eleminate any cells from research that could possibly help people, he is going ahead with groundbreaking experiments each day. he has learned that neurons have 'voices' with which they communicate to other neurons and he has been able to grow stem cells into neurons that have the ability to 'talk' just like the original neurons. just think of the possibilities and the wonders that they will find when we finally get the embryonic cells, but in the meantime, he is making do with what he has. i don't think that this is any way detrimental to the House and Senate bills pending that will allow embryonic stem cell research; but it does open the nay-sayers minds to the possibilities and the idea of stem cells being good and helpful and able to help cure disease and then it isn't such a far leap to embrace embryonic stem cell research. so, i thinik that cord blood laws, even if they do not directly have an impact on pd, they do allow more stem cells to be out there and available for research....this is just the way i feel about it. it in no way takes away my commitment to push for passage of the bill before Congress at this time. j -- Joan Blessington Snyder 54/14 [log in to unmask] http://www.pwnkle.com/jes/jes_web/index.htm “Hang tough……..no way through it but to do it.” Chris in the Morning Northern Exposure ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn