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REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER: Why We Need a Stem Cell-conscious President Imagine you're Indiana Jones and you're sliding down a mountain on a raft because you fell out of an airplane and the good news is you're alive and the bad news is the mountain is a volcano which hasn't erupted for centuries, but guess what? It is almost like a joke, sometimes, when life throws too much bad news at you, or your loved ones. Like my friend Ken, or my wife's cousin, or my sister: all in medical emergencies over the past few days. Ken and I grew up together, having adventures together too numerous to name. So, when he had the operation on his throat scheduled, naturally I wanted to be at the hospital. But he just laughed and said no, that was not needed, and it came across like he meant it, like I was questioning his manhood or something. After all, I figured, not everyone is as terrified of the hospital as I am. All my childhood memories of hospital incarceration come flooding back, whenever I enter those sanitized halls, all those needles and the blood jars and the-well, never mind. I let it go: forgot all about it. Until yesterday when I called him up to invite the family over for dinner because it was our turn to play host-and his voice sounded thin and weak and old, like I had never heard it before. "Well, the operation took seven hours," he said, "and the doctor says it will take about a year to recover, to get as close to normal as can be expected." This was with several pauses. A year-- to recover? That's all I know about Ken's status right now. He was too tired to talk about it. I don't even know his condition yet, what was the reason for the operation. Ken was only the first of the three medical emergencies inside the span of a week. My wife's cousin may get his leg amputated tomorrow, Wednesday the 23rd of July. Un-named here because I don't know how he'd feel about publicity, he has diabetes, and yesterday they removed three toes. They said it went well, and they hope the leg won't have to come off. And my younger sister, Barbara? Her cancer may have returned. We don't know for sure. It could just (just!) be leukemia. If it is leukemia, than Barbie goes back again under chemo, and radiation, and the arsenic, taking her again close to death, for the chance of saving her. Imagine hoping it is leukemia, which killed my older sister Patty, but which is treatable. If, however, it is not leukemia, but cancer, and that has spread inside the bone marrow, that could be systemic through her body, and there may be nothing we can do. We already tried the adult stem cell treatment, when our brother David had most of the blood of his body removed. They put him on a machine, 6 hours one day, 5 hours the next, and it took the blood out, sifted for the adult stem cells and put the blood back-and David's adult stem cells were given to our sister, in injections. It was a treatment, not a cure. Because our brother's stem cells are foreign to her body, (although as close as could be gotten - mine were judged too different to be safe at all) she is on immunosuppressants for the rest of her life. Being on immunosuppressants means your system cannot fight off infections as it should, and a cold can kill you. And this is after high dose radiation, and massive chemotherapy, and arsenic treatment, and the other operations, which removed parts of her. I can't help but remember a date when things might have become different. August 9, 2001. The world has mostly forgotten the day when President Bush announced his position on embryonic stem cell research: that he would be handcuffing embryonic stem cell research, allowing it to go forward only under extreme limitations-no federal funding except for those few stem cell lines in existence that day. What if he had said something different, something like: America, too many people are suffering and dying through chronic disease and disability: that is why we must go forward with embryonic stem cell research with all our power-this is far more important than any walk on the moon or a trip to Mars, and we must similar level financing to it, because it affects every member of this nation, and every country on earth. What if America's power had been turned to the fight against chronic disease and disability, which kill hundreds of our loved ones every hour? We might not be having this conversation today. I know, I know, a month later came September 11, which has since become the excuse for avoiding every other social responsibility. We can't afford to provide properly for our elders, and the poor cannot be decently fed or housed, and prenatal babies are not given proper nutrition, and the schools are going downhill faster and faster, and we can't afford this and we can't afford that-- because we have to keep flooding our money into Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11-but don't think, don't consider, just be afraid, be scared so you won't think, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11. But there was no 9/11 on August 9, 2001. On August 9th, 2001, the entire country was thinking about embryonic stem cell research, and whether America should fund it or not. And on that clear and peaceful day, with the attention of the nation fully focused, the President of the United States made a conscious decision- --to turn away from cure. He did it cleverly, in political terms that must be granted. Rather than banning the potentially life saving research altogether, he said he would allow federal funding of it-but only for those few stem cell lines already in existence. Only a handful of stem cell lines existed. This was like the first airplane flight of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, after their primitive biplane flew one hundred twenty feet-- and the government said, okay, we support airplane research-but only on airplanes existing today. Behind the scenes, things were even worse. Mr. Bush was in his words "enthusiastically supporting" the Weldon/Brownback bill to criminalize advanced forms of stem cell research. For the first time in the history of our country, a law was proposed (and rammed through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives without even one public hearing) to imprison scientists for even studying Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT), an advanced form of stem cell research. Has the President learned anything from these colossal mistakes? I doubt it. Yesterday I read where his administration now wants to hurry up and reclassify birth control pills-- as abortion. Think I am joking? I wish I was. Here is part of an article in the Charlotte Observer: the first place I read about this staggering change being slipped through into law right now. Tuesday, Jul 22, 2008 Posted on Mon, Jul. 21, 2008 Bush's latest: Birth control pills are abortion The Bush administration is proposing a rule that defines abortion so broadly that it even includes prescribing or dispensing birth control pills. .. The wording .defines abortion to include a number of commonly used birth control methods, including pills, IUDs and emergency contraceptives. It says abortion is "any of various procedures - including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action - that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation." Several common birth control methods, including pills, can interfere with implantation in addition to ovulation. Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Hillary Clinton of New York, as well as Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, all Democrats, have urged HHS to reconsider the regulation, saying it goes too far. We suspect President Bush's anti-abortion appointees at HHS hoped to sneak this ridiculous measure into place before they depart Washington in a few months.---Charlotte Oberver, July 21, 2008. Why does this matter? For we as stem cell research supporters, if birth control pills can be considered abortion, what does that do to embryonic stem cell research? This is one step closer to "personhood" for blastocysts, granting every union of sperm and egg legal standing in a court of law, which would not only remove every woman's right to choose, but would also threaten the In Vitro Fertility procedure with its left over blastocysts, presently the only source for new embryonic stem cell lines. It is like that old saying: those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We must remember in November. In John McCain, we have a Presidential candidate who will grudgingly allow a little bit of embryonic stem cell research to go forward-he signed the very mild Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act- but he is also a co-author of the Weldon/Brownback bill to criminalize SCNT. Folks, this is like trading one Bush brother for another! In Barack Obama, we have a candidate who truly supports stem cell research-- and can tell you why. And those candidates, Obama and McCain, are locked in a statistical tie in the polls right now: we are close to a repeat of 2000, and 2004. I don't know how you feel. But I for one am sick and tired of having a President who is an obstacle to our loved ones' hope of cure. For anyone who supports stem cell research, Obama is the only conceivable vote. Remember in November. P.S. Friday's column could be important. It is how voters with a disability can turn the tide in every state, including the swing states, and most especially the states in the south. I would appreciate any help you could give on passing it along. If you belong to any stem cell support groups, you might consider sharing it with them. That's this coming Friday, July 25th, 2008. Thanks-and Remember in November! Don C. Reed Sponsor, Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act co-chair, Californians for Cures Vice President, Public Policy, Americans for Cures Rayilyn Brown Director AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson 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