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List members: I did not add my comments to this discussion sooner because I wanted my initial emotions to subside before writing and editing my response. I do not wish to cause new members of the list to be discouraged but I believe that there are appropriate times for a dose of reality when it comes to PD. The most recent I recall on the list was the discussion of whether the explanation of the 5 Stages of PD should have been posted. The members of this list have a very wide range of PD symptoms and some have been fortunate to have lived with PD for a very long time without becoming completely debilitated. If you check out the NINDS website and read the extensive list of neurological disorders, most of which we know of no cause let alone a treatment or cure, you should realize how extensive neuro disorders are in this world. The discussion on what is acceptable research causes me to question the concern some persons profess for the sanctity of human life. My maternal grandfather died of ALS, a disorder with no cure that eventually disables all bodily functions and results in death. My father was diagnosed with PD a few months before his 65th birthday and died of complications resulting from PD. After 13 years of suffering he died in the hospital weighing about 78 pounds (n=145). My brother was diagnosed with PD when he was 44. By the time he was 49 his most effective means of mobility was crawling around on his hands and knees. He needed a telephone that had headphones and a mike. He could not control a computer mouse with both hands and had great difficulty feeding himself. The next logical step was long term nursing care. He had biSTN a year and a half ago ---- a very effective treatment for PD but it IS NOT A CURE! People with the very advanced stages of PD still have a brain that can function normally intellectually but is trapped in a non-functional prison -- their own body. Is a living, breathing, thinking, feeling, intelligent human being trapped in a heap of dysfunctional cells of less value than the few cells of an embryo that may become a viable being (God willing)? A person with the advanced stages of PD is just as helpless as that embryo and must depend on other human beings for their very existance in this world. Are we humans so omnipotent that we can determine what God's purpose is for each embryo that is created? Are we so all-knowing that we can determine what our creator has determined our destiny to be --- how we will serve humankind? Have we considered that perhaps God's purpose for certain individuals is to serve mankind by being the building blocks of medical breakthroughs to benefit others? We need to use every resource available to make life better for all mankind. The research that is "targeted" for Parkinson's Disease may benefit many other people on this earth. Maybe that research will find a treatment or cure for Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT), a heritable genetic disorder a close friend of ours has recently been diagnosed with. Maybe it will result in solutions to other neurological disorders or non-neuro diseases. If you can look at a totally helpless person that has very advanced PD or any other disease and determine that every resource available should not be used to find relief for that malady so others after them need not suffer --- you must evaluate your true concerns for human life. Sincerely, Paul Fahr