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I couldn't agree more with Idelle. Especially the 2nd and last paragraph. Thank you. Ray December 22, 2006 Dear SCAN Members, So close to the holidays, most folks are busy with family and friends, crowding the shopping malls looking for the perfect gift, searching for a special way to say, "Thank you" to all the people who help, who share, who comfort, who make you smile. I said my 'thank yous' during Thanksgiving week, so I thought this week I'd share my wish list. It's pretty small, actually. Since being diagnosed with M.S. more than 25 years ago, I've learned to be somewhat flexible, to always have "plan B" figured out when my first choice - "plan A" - wasn't going to be possible. For example: Can't keep living in a three story house, OK, move to a ranch. Can't use a cane, get a walker. Not enough balance to use the walker, get a scooter, etc. All has been manageable - so far. While closely reading M.S. research articles over the years, I often noticed words like "some improvement" but never saw the word "regenerate" and certainly not the gold standard "cure". But then stem cell research developments began to be described in the press, and I quickly recognized that this was something different. And not just for M.S. but for science, for progress, for all of us. So what's on my wish list? Just one thing: a request. "Please get out of the way!" and let the exploration proceed, allow the knowledge to unfold, the treatments to be designed. "Get out of the way!", and demonstrate some respect for those of us tottering at the edge of the abyss; stop the constant distortions of the facts. For example, stop saying "adult cells are just as good as embryonic ones". That has not ever been proven. Stop saying "unimplanted fertilized eggs are 'babies'". They're not. Stop showing pictures of fetuses instead of blastocysts and know the difference. Babies and fetuses need a womb to earn those labels. No womb: not a baby. No womb: not a fetus. Stop saying that embryonic stem cells have produced no cures, without noting that they have been underfunded and outlawed since their isolation in the lab less than 10 years ago. Stop saying that adult stem cells have cured 70 or 90 (not true) diseases without mentioning that none of those diseases are the ones that are keeping us in wheelchairs (like M.S., muscular dystrophy, or conditions like spinal cord injury). Nor do they include diabetes, Parkinson's, A.L.S., Huntington's, Alzheimer's, etc. It's OK to disagree about when life begins. It's not OK to spread misinformation with the goal of confusing the public. Isn't telling the truth on your list of ethical behaviors? So please, get out of the way, pack up your bag of dirty tricks, and don't be so sure that you can fool all of the people of a great nation, all the time. Idelle Datlof Executive Director And Don't Forget: - Stemblog is SCAN's new blog that will showcase input from as many advocacy groups as possible. Will be "live" before the New Year at www.stemblog.net . Do you belong to an advocacy group that you'd like to see join this great in-gathering? Contact them and suggest they take a look at the blog and then contact me, [log in to unmask] - We are turning our attention to the stem cell bill (HR810) that will be introduced in Congress the week of January 8, 2007. Stay tuned for a list of the representatives who are deemed most likely to change a "nay" vote to an "aye". They want to hear from you. - We are still gathering nominations for the SCAN Advocacy Awards 2007. Please send in the name and brief bio of someone you know who is working hard for our cause. - Please put SCAN on your end-of-year donations list. - And: Enjoy, Enjoy! or "Happy Holidays!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn