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# 409 Friday, January 18, 2007 - HILLARY, THE EXECUTIVE ORDER, AND A COUPLE OF ENORMOUS QUESTIONS "Hillary Clinton would overturn Bush's Executive Order on Stem Cell Research.Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday she would sign an executive order rescinding President George W. Bush's restrictions on government funding for embryonic stem cell research."-Associated Press, Washington, October 04, 2007 Senator Hillary Clinton's pledge Is an opportunity to show political unity among the candidates. Should we ask the other candidates to commit to do the same? Seems to me every Democratic leader is on the same page (with the possible exception of Dennis Kucinich, who at one time opposed embryonic stem cell research, if memory serves) and this could be an opportunity to show unity. Of the Republicans, McCain and Giuliani appear willing to support us on this. Is it important? Does committing to an executive directive make a difference? It could save us the hassle and time of fighting to pass the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act through Congress and the Senate again. While we are virtually certain to win passage of the Castle/DeGette bill (already passed twice, but vetoed by President Bush) still there are no guarantees-- and I hate to think of going through all those months of empty arguing again, in a field already burdened with obstructionism and delay. Delays are deadly. People are dying-families are suffering-and we should no more countenance delay than we would hesitate to toss a rope to a drowning child. Some people are noble enough to work toward a cure for others, later on, generations down the line. Not me. I am too selfish for that-I want cures now. Too many good people are suffering. I refuse to say, oh well, it's okay if my son endures the hell of paralysis for another twenty years (after which I am gone from the picture, never getting the chance to maybe see him walk again?) while we go on suffering delay after needless delay. Once we get the legislative ball and chains removed, then we must fight for the funding. It is not enough to say, alright, the idiotic restrictions are off at last. We must also put some money where our mouth is. We need to fund embryonic SCNT, and the new skin cell reprogramming) as enthusiastically as Mr. Bush pushes adult stem cell research. You heard where the military awarded a grant for $227 million for just one adult stem cell project? A quarter of a billion dollars.And that is how it should be. That is the level of funding we need to be doing for all sorts of individual stem cell grants right now. Unfortunately, the entire federal budget for embryonic stem cell research last year was only $37 million, about one ninth what that single adult stem cell program got. We need to make a major financial reorientation, backing research for cure significantly, along the lines of the Defense Department. Three reasons: First, the physical suffering is immense. We are close to the modern day equivalent of the Black Plague, which wracked Europe in the Dark Ages. It is not so visibly obvious as when the cart rolled through the town every day, and the driver would ring a bell and say, "Bring out your dead", piling the bodies at the edge of town and burning them in a heap so the wolves come down from the hills and eat the cooked flesh. We are not there yet, but similar horrors are not far off. One hundred million Americans have an incurable disease or disability. One in three. Secondly, health care costs are an enormous drain on the economy-two trillion dollars last year, roughly the same as all federal income taxes, put together. Third, something positive: a new source of jobs, to replace losses in other fields. Click on the following to read, "Blue-Collar Jobs Disappear, Taking Families' Way of Life Along" by Erik Eckholm, January 16, 2008, New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/us/16ohio.html It talks about good people, hard workers all their lives, who suddenly can't make ends meet. Instead of making $20-30 an hour, and living solid productive lives, they are suddenly reduced to fast-food minimum wages, and survival is a struggle. More and more adults are moving back in with their aging parents because they can't afford a place to live on their own. They are selling off beloved possessions, just to keep food on the table. Detroit, Michigan, presently bleeding jobs from an ailing auto industry, can and should become the source of new jobs for that state; legislators and the public need to work together to develop and support the new biomedical industry. In California, biomedicine is either number one, or number two (I have heard it both ways, some have us tied with aerospace, others show biomedicine in the lead) when it comes to providing well-paying jobs. In every state, when Presidential candidates get up to speak, they should be asked two questions: will they join Senator Clinton in rescinding the Bush stem cell restrictions, and do they support the new biomedical industry. Time is short. Before every voter pulls the curtain of privacy, and stands alone in the voting booth with power in their hands, he or she needs to know where a candidate stands on the issue of stem cell research. So-let's ask! Don Reed www.stemcellbattles.com Don C. Reed is co-chair of Californians for Cures, and writes for their web blog, www.stemcellbattles.com. Reed was citizen-sponsor for California's Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act of 1999, named after his paralyzed son; he worked as a grassroots advocate for California's Senator Deborah Ortiz's three stem cell regulatory laws, served as an executive board member for Proposition 71, the California Stem Cells for Research and Cures Act, and is director of policy outreach for Americans for Cures. The retired schoolteacher is the author of five books and thirty magazine articles, and has received the National Press Award. Rayilyn Brown Board Member AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn