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----- Original Message ----- From: "rayilynlee" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Cc: "Don C. Reed" <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 9:28 AM Subject: Re: Honesty > Chris: > > I talked to Dennis Turner by phone last April 24, 2006 and he confirmed to > me that his Parkinson's had returned with a vengeance. He is grateful > for his "reprieve" but PD meds give Parkinson's people a "reprieve" of a > few hours when they are "ON". As time goes on the dyskinesias outweigh > the benefits. Medicine reduces symptoms for most people with Parkinson's. > > PD meds only helped me once and I had DBS brain surgery twice to help > control my tremors. Dr. Levesque did a DBS on Turner and that is when he > took his brain cells. It might account for his improvement but it is > seldom mentioned. > > Do you think brain surgery will become a routine treatment? You must be > awake for this and some people are too old or just can't take it. It is > dangerous. > > Neither Turner nor I (although I do not speak for him) are grateful for > "crumbs". NEVER have I seen it mentioned that Turner's PD has returned. > Why is that? > > Embryonic stem cell research does not involve "fetal" cells - stop > spinning this. There are no people, babies or fetuses involved, but > undifferentiated cells. > > Embryonic stem cell research has been only a possibility in hostile > environment created by you since 1998. Adult stem cell research has been > around over 40 years. > > Also, if you believe ESCR is immoral it shouldn't matter which kind is > "better". > > We need you to get out of the way of science so that all kinds of stem > cell research can go forward. And we don't need outright lies about ASCR. > > Rayilyn Brown > Surprise AZ > [log in to unmask] > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 7:09 AM > Subject: Re: Honesty > > >> 1045592 Ms. Rayilyn Brown >> >> Dear Rayilyn, >> >> Thank you for contacting Family Research Council regarding adult stem >> cell treatments. We appreciate the time you have taken to share your >> concerns with us. >> >> It is not the intent of FRC to portray adult stem cell therapies as >> "cures", but adult stem cells have been used to successfully treat over >> 70 different types of diseases and injuries. If you have not already done >> so, please download or order our brochure, "Adult Stem Cell Treatments: >> Nine Faces of Success" at http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=BC06I01. This >> helpful brochure provides nine examples of individuals that have >> benefited from adult stem cell treatments, including the story of Dennis >> Turner. According to Dr. Michael Levesque, M.D., Dennis Turner's >> Parkinson's symptoms were reduced by 80% after he was treated with his >> own adult neural stem cells. While we make no claim that Dennis Turner >> was cured using adult stem cells, the reduction of symptoms represent a >> great success. >> >> As you are undoubtedly aware, FRC opposes the harvesting of embryonic >> stem cells for research. This process, explained in detail in our >> brochure, "Stem Cell Research, Cloning & Human Embryos" >> (http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=BC04C01) always requires the destruction of >> human life. What is more, fetal tissue has actually not been very >> successful at all in producing real treatments. After over 10 years of >> research and 2 large controlled studies (one published in the New England >> Journal of Medicine, one in Annals of Neurology) with Parkinson's >> patients, they found that fetal cells provided no benefit to the >> patients, and actually made 15-25% of them worse. Of course, the ethical >> question about using aborted fetuses, and possibly encouraging abortion, >> surrounds the use of fetal tissue. >> >> For embryonic stem cells, the researcher must actually destroy a living >> embryo that is about 1 week old. It's true that all of our tissues come >> from our embryonic stem cells back when we were embryos. But once the >> embryo is destroyed and the cells put in the lab dish, the experimental >> evidence has been anything but convincing. There is not yet a single >> published paper that shows the researcher able to get all the cells in >> the dish to form, for example, all nerve cells, or all heart cells, etc. >> Instead there is a mixture of all types of cells. And when embryonic stem >> cells are injected into experimental animals, there is a tendency to form >> tumors, or a mixed mass of cells, and very few experiments have shown any >> benefit to the animals with disease. Though embryonic stem cells may have >> looked interesting theoretically, they are wild, untamed cells once >> removed from the embryo. >> >> And while it is illegal to produce or abort a fetus (weeks old) to obtain >> stem cells, it is perfectly legal to produce an embryo, by fertilization >> or by cloning, and destroy it for its stem cells one week later. >> >> Current federal law restricts federal spending to human embryonic stem >> cells that existed as of Aug 9, 2001, but there is no legal restriction >> on creating and harvesting human embryos for stem cells, as long as other >> funds are used. Most of the embryos currently used in research are from >> fertility clinics, and these embryos were created to implant into a womb >> for a live birth, and could still be given this chance at life, but there >> are already several reported cases where researchers have created embryos >> by fertilization or cloning to harvest their embryonic stem cells. >> >> Regarding adult stem cells, this field of investigation has been moving >> very fast. There are now hundreds of published scientific papers that >> show adult stem cells capable of surprising things of which we were >> unaware just a few years ago. Unfortunately the public has not been given >> this news, and even some scientists still hold to old dogma about adult >> stem cells. It is no longer correct to say that adult stem cells can only >> form a limited number of tissues, or that they are difficult to isolate >> or to grow in culture. The evidence now shows that adult stem cells >> (including cord blood stem cells) have great capacity to form other >> tissues and to repair damaged tissues. These cells have convincingly been >> shown in paper after paper to repair damaged tissue in animals, and now >> in dozens of papers to repair damage in humans as well. Hundreds of >> patients have been successfully treated for various conditions, including >> sickle cell anemia, heart attack damage, stroke, Parkinson's, and spinal >> cord injury. It is not yet a "cure"--these are beginning clinical trials >> to test the effectiveness of adult stem cells--but they have been >> successful when tested. >> >> You can read more about recent successes of adult stem cells in a paper >> (with ample references) that our Senior Fellow for Life Sciences and the >> Center for Human Life and Bioethics wrote recently for the President's >> Council on Bioethics at >> http://bioethics.gov/reports/stemcell/appendix_k.html >> As he notes in one of the early paragraphs, many of the treatments are >> not discussed in his paper because these were being reviewed by others, >> but he still gives some of the references for those patient treatments. >> >> Also, you might check out the following website, which discusses adult >> stem cell advances, written more for a general audience (but with >> references): >> http://www.stemcellresearch.org >> >> We hope this has helped, and if you have other questions, please feel >> free to contact us. >> >> Sincerely, >> >> Chris Marlink >> FRC Correspondence >> >> --- Original Message -------------------------------------------------- >> >> Ms. Rayilyn Brown >> 18507 N Windfall Dr >> Surprise, AZ 85374-8938 >> E-Mail: [log in to unmask] >> Subject: Honesty >> Date: December 26, 2006 >> >> Why are you so dishonest about adult stem cells and Parkinson's disease? >> There are no adult stem cell cures and you know it. I have had >> Parkinson's for over ten years, don't believe germ cells are people, and >> think you are cruel, anti-science and uncaring about people who suffer. >> But what really galls me is how you keep referring to Dennis Turner >> without noting his Parkinson's has returned. >> >> Shouldn't honesty be on your list of ethical, family values behaviors? >> >> >> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn