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1.Camilla, I did not see the post as a "flame" or personal attack at all, but rather as an appropriate reprimand of someone being loose with the facts. And suicide is a rather important topic with which to be loose. I haven't been able to find Ivan's comment, though, so I'm not sure exactly what he said. Ivan (and Barbara Mallut) get lots of kudos for their good works, you shouldn't be concerned about that. But if he did say a lot of us were committing suicide (the ultimate selfish act, in my opinion) and this is untrue, then he is doing all of us a disservice by stating it. Especially since he does frequently make use of our statistics, a very powerful tool for us. The whole topic just scares the shit out of me. I mentioned both of these stories in the past, but I'll do so again. I have no idea why since I knew absolutely nothing about the disease, but I spent the whole first weekend after being diagnosed 3 yrs ago thinking about doing myself in. When and how. I even devised an apparatus. By Monday I had come to my senses. A week or so later, my wife, not at her sensitive best, told me that the PWP husband of an old lady Medicare client of hers had just blown his brains out with a pistol in their bedroom and if I ever did it to please find another way. Adults who commit suicide are weak and cause incalculable pain to those around them, and should be condemned rather than pitied. I don't recall the number, but children of suicide "victims" are many times more likely also to eventually kill themselves. If we are, as was suggested, actually less likely to do it than that is good news, and the opposite shouldn't wrongly be portrayed. P.S. I would feel more sympathy for someone terminally ill, near the end and in great pain, such as Dr Kevorkian's original customers. Maybe my loathing for even hearing the word is my fear that I will be in such condition someday. 2. Speaking of statistics, it is mind-bogling that these assholes in Congress cannot see that we are clearly not asking for one dime that will not be repaid, what?,a hundred times, a thousand times in a very short period of time in direct reduction of government expenditures. This is should be our prime selling point, shouldn't it? We should all have these dollar statistics at our fingertips and I don't. CAN ANYONE OUT THERE PROVIDE THEM TO US SO WE CAN SPREAD THE WORD BETTER? There's the savings in SSDI, in welfare, and all the other very direct costs. There's the additional tax revenues that would be generated by a healthier 1 million + taxpayers, etc, etc. We obviously aren't going to get the funds because we need them. That's kind of like asking the boss for a raise because your spouse cracked up both your cars within 3 days. Not his problem. I know this has been used as one of our selling points, but unless they do not believe our "cure within 5 years" claim, something is not right.