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i know that your letter to the listserv wasn't addressed to me, but i wanted to let you know that you are not alone in your delicate balancing act asking you to support or reject the idea of embryonic stem cell research, i am a pro-life, Roman Catholic who believes that the time of choice comes when the sex act is about to be consumated and i walked that tightrope and defended the argument that life began at the time the sperm implants into the egg. after years, and i do mean years of constant push and pull and reading article after article, each of which i hoped would deciede for me, i was still on the fence. i have been dxed w/ pd for over 16 yrs now. i am 54 yrs. old, my two teenagers have never known a mom who has not had pd. i spend my days in a wheelchair or trying haul my ass up off the floor. i'm not whining about my lot in life. these are simply facts. it could be worse and i know it but this for certain, ain't no joy ride! but last year, when my mom was dxed with pd and it became apparant that my grandmother and two great aunts had also had pd but nobody had ever considered this dxs before (it was thought that shaking just came with aging) and i began to see a pattern developing and suddenly this all hit home. not only were my friends online and in my life, dropping dead but also my dear friends were getting worse and worse by the year-that it hit me: why was it more pro-life to protect a petrie dish of squishy, tiny, not concieved in an act of love, and never even being considered for implantation in a woman's womb than it was to try to help someone like my friend Charlie, a productive, kind and wonderful father of 5 kids? there are a million others with stories out there to share with the world and they all deserve to have their stories told to bring about change. there is something wrong with this picture! and for the life of me, i cannot see the justification for denying researcher access to embryonic stem cells lines. so this is my story about conversion, oh i still consider myself to be a pro-life Catholic but also one who believes in embroyonic stem cell research. -- 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