 |
 |
# 199 Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - THE MORE THINGS CHANGE. You know the old saying, "The more things change, the more they remain the same" ? First, read the following selection from the article "White House Softens Tone On Embryo Use" by Peter Baker, Washington Post, July 25, 2006. "President Bush does not consider stem cell research using human embryos to be murder, the White House said yesterday, reversing his its description of his position just days after he vetoed legislation (HR 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act-dr). "(White House press secretary Tony) Snow described Bush's position last Tuesday. "The president believes strongly. it's inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder. He's one of them," Snow said from the White House. "The simple answer is he thinks murder's wrong." (emphasis added-dr) "The president did not use that term the next day at the veto ceremony, but he did say he objected to the legislation because it "would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others." Snow retracted his statement and apologized. "I overstepped my brief there.," Snow said. "And I feel bad about it." "So the president does not regard this as murder?" a reporter asked. "He would not use that term," Snow said." End quote. Two things strike me from that. First, the wrong man apologized. Unless spokesperson Snow is a loose cannon who makes up Presidential opinions willy-nilly, he presented what seems to be an accurate description of the Presidents' opinion. Are we expected to believe Snow accidentally used the word "murder" twice in three sentences? Almost certainly, the word choice was deliberate: red meat to excite opponents of the research. The "apology" is a soothing cookie tossed to the rest of us, an empty gesture, meaningless, but intended to calm the three-quarters of America which supports embryonic stem cell research. The President's opinions on this issue have not changed; neither, essentially, have my own. I recently ran across the following testimony, which I provided for the 2001 Kennedy hearings on stem cell research. www.house.gov/stark/webarchives/Stark%20Web%20Page/documents/107th/drdonreedstate.html 13th Congressional District Resident Don C. Reed Provides Testimony Before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee as a Proponent of Stem Cell Research. Mr. Reed is the father of Roman Reed who suffered a football injury 7 years ago and is paralyzed from the neck down. September 5, 2001 Dear Senator Kennedy, honorable Committee Members: Seven years ago, my son Roman Reed suffered an accident while playing college football. His neck was broken; he became paralyzed from the shoulders down. Since then, our family has become involved in the struggle to find a cure for paralysis. We were fortunate to have a new law passed in California, the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act, setting aside a small amount of money each year for paralysis research. Imagine our joy, therefore, to hear about the amazing possibilities of embryonic stemcells. If new nerve cells could be therapeutically cloned, and imprinted with Roman's DNA pattern, his own body could regrow nerves to heal the damaged spine. Our son might be able to close the fingers of his hands again, maybe even rise and walk. Unfortunately, despite President Bush's public commitment to allow embryonic stem cell research, steps are being taken which will effectively kill that research. 1. The President supports and has promised to sign House Resolution 2505. Under this terrifying anti-science law, it will be a federal crime to make embryonic stem cells: a felony, punishable by a ten-year jail sentence, and a one million dollar fine. HR-2505 treats therapeutic cloning of cells as if it was the reproductive cloning of humans. Obviously, to multiply infant copies of ourselves is wrong, and should be illegal. But therapeutic cloning? That is about cure: making cells, healing people, saving lives. Comparing therapeutic and reproductive cloning is like comparing a surgeon's scalpel to a criminal's switchblade. Their purposes are completely different. Under HR-2505, if a researcher found the answer to cancer, paralysis, or AIDS -- but cloned just one embryo to make stem cells -- he or she would have to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in jail. 2. The President is also shutting off the only other source of embryonic stem cells; he will not allow the scientific use of embryos left over from fertility procedures. Under the Bush guidelines, no more new embryonic stem cell lines can be made. Ever. 3. The Administration's list of 64 viable stem cell lines is neither sufficient nor even accurate. Sweden, for example, is credited with seventeen "robust, vital" lines. The Swedes made a phone call to correct this, stating they have three usable lines, not seventeen. Only ten laboratories in the world even have viable embryonic stem cell lines. America has four. 4. Even these extremely few stem cell lines can never be used to help people. As is the case with all new science, experimental animals--(laboratory mice)--were used to make the lines. Food and Drug Administration guidelines on inter-species experiments disqualifies them for human cure. If we could use therapeutic cloning, this would not be a problem. We could just manufacture some more--but HR-2505 makes that illegal. The President's proposal, then, leaves us with nothing but the promise of what might have been. This decision will hurt every American. For those who suffer crippling and life-threatening diseases now, and the families who watch them suffer, our most promising possibility of cure has been denied. For sheer financial self-interest alone, the quest for cure must be allowed. Our country faces an increasingly unpayable mountain of medical debt, public and private. It is overwhelmingly expensive to provide longterm hospitalization and attendant care. Example: spinal cord injury, which my son Roman has, costs America approximately $20 billion a year in medical costs and lost wages. That's about $170 per taxpayer, for just one medical condition. And the cost in suffering to 450,000 paralyzed Americans and their families? That terrible price can never be calculated. Why would anyone want to deny cure to the injured and critically ill? The problem, conservatives point out, is that when we dissect an embryo to obtain stemcells, we are destroying living tissue. That near-microscopic dot is technically alive. And there is our choice. Like the battlefield medic who decides which soldier's life to try and save, because he cannot save them all, we too must choose; a 5-7 day old collection of cells in a glass petri dish-or a hundred million suffering people. Think of folks you know. Like President Ronald Reagan, who has Ahlzheimer's disease. Or Michael J. Fox, with Parkinson's. Mary Tyler Moore, juvenile diabetes. Magic Johnson, HIV. Elizabeth Montgomery, who died of cancer. Vice President Dick Cheney, heart disease. Christopher Reeve, spinal cord injury. Annette Funicello, multiple sclerosis. And other folks, out of the public eye, like a soldier terribly burned on the battlefield and living in continual pain, or my sister Patty, who died of leukemia at age 24. Perhaps, God forbid, even someone in your own family. Whose rights shall we protect-- our loved ones, the living people of the world-- or a dot in a dish, a collection of cells which can neither think nor feel? Honored committee members, you who will make this momentuous decision: do not feel rushed. Give us your best. For in your hands are the hopes and dreams of those imprisoned by infirmity, confined to a lifetime of wheelchairs and hospital beds, and the endless humiliations of helplessness. As my paralyzed son Roman puts it: "Take a stand with us today, in favor of research for cure. Take a stand-- so one day, everybody can." Thank you. Don C. Reed is the father of Roman Reed, and the sponsor of California's Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act. End Quote. Those who know me best have probably gone out for a cup of coffee at this point, having heard my little "speechlets" too many times before. Today I would refer to Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer instead of therapeutic cloning; but the ideas are the same. I supported research for cure back then, and still support it now. The President was wrong in 2001; he is still wrong in 2006. The anti-SCNT bill religious conservatives will soon push in the House of Representatives is the same Weldon/Brownback bill the President pushed in 2001, (and also 2003). Mr. Bush has not changed. He had a golden opportunity to make things right. The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (HR 810, Castle/Degette) was a very cautious bill: a small but meaningful step forward. Instead, Mr. Bush chose to surround himself with babies, and veto HR 810, pretending the research was murder. Interestingly, every one of the babies he hugged for the cameras was born with the help of In Vitro Fertility (IVF) procedures. The man whom President Bush put in charge of the Presidential Bioethics Commission, Leon Kass, is a long-term opponent of IVF procedures-if the President's man had had his way, none of those babies would have been born. So what can we do now, with an anti-research President in charge? Fortunately, you and I had the incredible good sense to be born in a country where, if we don't like the leadership, we can peacefully shoo them away. The answer to the President's veto is another four letter word: vote. We are stuck with two and a half more years of the Bush Administration. But in about four months, we can weaken his strangle-hold on power. November is almost here. Every family which supports stem cell research should back candidates who care. If the President cannot control Congress, he cannot dictate the anti-research bills he wants. AND-- if the anti-research Senators and Representatives are voted out (easy to know who they are; the people who disqualified themselves by voting no on HR 810)-- we will be able to bring positive change. The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act is not dead; it merely sleeps. All we need is a few more good men and women in power: leaders who care about the one hundred million Americans (and their families) suffering incurable disease and disability. It reminds me of another old saying, which I just made up- Remember in November. By Don Reed www.stemcellbattles.com Submit Comments or Questions ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn