n reply to Janet Patersonn @ibli.pbm Iwould like to call atention to a major
problem that could arise if neurons can be induced to replicate in response
to damage or genetic malformation. INSIDE THE BRAIN by Roland Kotulak (publ.
1996 by Andrews & McMeel, Kansas City) is used by its reviewer in the N.Y.
Times Book Review, George Johnson, to criticize the optimistic view that
restoration or renewal of injured areas of thr brain will give genetic and
biochemical advantage to (relatively well off) old people at the expense of
poor children. "As more taxes go to prop up graying America, it will be that
much harder to find for the mammoth educational reforms and social progress
needed to fight the epidemic of preventable brain damage. If politics is
reallly just the calculus of greed, then research money will be channeled
into gerontology, not saving young lives."
Strong guilt medicine for (elderly) Parkinson disease
patients. Taking from the advantaged, politically powerfull, to give to the
physicaly and mentally handicapped "...will not lead to a shrinking pool of
people taking their place. A dismayingly large segment of the population
will be too slow, too jittery and too explosive for work that requires
patience and contemplation." (Quote from the reviewer).
The reviewer of this book, the subject of which is of great interest
to PD patients, knows little of the history and politics of medical science,
but he makes up for it in ignorance.
Steven
Steven E. Mayer, Ph.D.
