Hi Judith , IMHO if there were a way to make all congressman and politician to take notice of the content of the e-mail below for considerations that should speed the find a cure for PD . Cheers , judith richards wrote: > http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/sc/story.html?s=v/nm/19990520/sc/health_stem_2.html > > May 20, 1999 > > New Group Pushes For Controversial Cell Research > > By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent > > WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Patients with diseases ranging from Parkinson's > to juvenile diabetes demanded Thursday that the government drop its > squeamishness over stem cell research, which they say can offer > treatments > and even cures for their ailments. > > A patients' lobbying group released a poll suggesting that > three-quarters of Americans favor such research, which uses cells from a > variety of sources, including embryos left over from attempts to create > test-tube babies. > > ``If they don't do this they are taking lives away from people and they > are pretty much taking my life away, too,'' Michelle Puczynski, 15, of > Toledo, Ohio, said in an interview. > > Puczynski has juvenile or type-I diabetes, an incurable disease that > researchers think has great potential to be treated or even cured by > stem cell research. > > The stem cells in question have the potential to grow into any kind of > cell in the body and scientists hope to use them for tissue transplants, > drug screening, basic research and perhaps some day to grow new organs. > > U.S. law forbids the use of public money to pay for research that > involves damaging or manipulating live human embryos and anti-abortion > groups oppose the research. > > Much of the work has been funded by private companies, although National > Institutes of Health (NIH) director Harold Varmus believes there are > legal ways around this, including using material harvested from embryos > by > private companies. > > The patients, the researchers and support groups say this is not good > enough. They want to make sure the research focuses on treating human > diseases such as the incurable and fatal Parkinson's or Huntington's > diseases, which may > be treated through brain tissue transplants. > > The new lobbying group, the Patient's Coalition for Urgent Research > (CURE), released a survey of 1,000 adults that showed 74 percent of them > supported human stem cell research -- even when the cells came from very > early > embryos left over from in vitro fertilization (IVF or test-tube) > attempts. > > ``I think if Congress hears clearly the voices of Americans facing these > diseases, more than 100 million of them, their constituents, they will > do the right thing,'' Dan Perry, executive director of the Alliance for > Aging Research, which supports the new group, told a news conference. > > The new group worries that debate over the ethics of stem cells research > will hold up vital scientific progress. > > ``It's not that I don't have ethics,'' John Gearhart of Johns Hopkins > University in Baltimore, whose stem cell work has been funded in part by > biotechnology company Geron, said in an interview. ``I'm just explaining > the facts.'' > > Patients say they, too, have considered the arguments against stem cell > research but reject them. > > ``I think it is a little bit squeamish,'' Puczynski said. > > Scientists hope to grow the type of pancreatic cells destroyed in type-I > diabetes, freeing patients from the need to monitor their blood sugar > and inject themselves with insulin several times a day to stay alive. > > Gearhart cautions that the research is at a very early stage, but says > this is why government involvement is needed. > > ``We are not growing brains. We are not growing limbs,'' Gearhart told > the news conference. > > ``This is daunting work. But it is the kind of area where we need > substantial funding and we need the involvement of a variety of > interests,'' he added. > > ``We don't want 100,000 investigators doing the same thing. We need some > kind of oversight. The NIH does that.'' > > And he said there is little time to delay. ``There is a degree of > urgency to this. We need to go ahead.'' > > Copyright © 1999 Reuters Limited. > -- > Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada > <[log in to unmask]> > ^^^ > \ / > \ | / Today’s Research > \\ | // ...Tomorrow’s Cure > \ | / > \|/ > ``````` -- +----| Joao Paulo de Carvalho |------ + | [log in to unmask] | +--------| Salvador-Bahia-Brazil |------+