On Michael J. Fox, Stem Cell Research, and Informed Voting

Much media attention has been directed to former "Back to the Future" star Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, and his campaigning on behalf of candidates who support embryonic stem cell research. 

 

The unfortunate comments of conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh - comments in which he accused Mr. Fox of exaggerating the shaking connected with his disease, fueled the media flurry.

 

We reach out in sympathy and compassion to Mr. Fox in his suffering, and do not condone insensitivity to his condition.  Certainly, we understand and respect his decision to publicly support candidates whom he feels would support legislation that may result in cures for Parkinson's and so many other diseases.

 

However, we regret that Mr. Fox is woefully misinformed, and therefore dangerously misleading, when he states that the greatest hope for such cures lies in research utilizing embryonic stem cells.

 

Here, as in any discussion of embryonic stem cells, we must first state that our most fundamental objection to embryonic stem cell research lies in the fact that such research requires the destruction of a human embryo - the destruction of a precious human life.

 

Even laying aside this serious ethical concern, though, there is no reason to believe that embryonic stem cell research holds any hope for curing Parkinson's disease or any other disease.  Years of research using embryonic stem cells have resulted in ZERO cures, even in test animals. 

 

In fact, very recent research at the University of Rochester Medical Center - research specific to Parkinson's - reemphasized the frustration inherent in focusing on embryonic stem cells for research.  Human embryonic stem cells injected into the brains of rats suffering Parkinson's-like symptoms resulted in growths that eventually killed the rats.

 

And those results were not atypical.  Because embryonic stem cells are designed for rapid, pluripotent growth, they repeatedly prove unstable and unpredictable when introduced to mature tissue, frequently resulting in the growth of tumors and a myriad of other problems.

 

NOT SO WITH ADULT STEM CELLS, stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood, bone marrow, the pancreas, the brain and other adult tissues.  This is where the hope Mr. Fox looks for can be found.  To date there have been at least 76 scientifically documented categories of cures through adult stem cell research, including heart disease, diabetes, sickle cell anemia, and Parkinson's.

 

Yes, Parkinson's.

 

Consider the case of Dennis Turner, a man who suffered from Parkinson's for fourteen years.  His condition was characterized by strong shaking on the right side of his body, making arm coordination virtually impossible.  In spite of years of treatment with the most current and advanced medicines, his condition continued to deteriorate.  Then he was presented the option of adult stem cell therapy.  In 1999, his own stem cells were extracted from his brain and subsequently transplanted into the left side of his brain.

 

In a July 2004 U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing, Turner testified that he had experienced dramatic improvement in daily activity.  He went without symptoms of the disease for four years, and was anticipating a second procedure, which would involve taking additional stem cells from his brain, this time implanting them into the right side.

 

Due to the lack of successes and serious problems inherent in embryonic stem cell research private research companies and venture capitalists refuse to invest in embryonic stem cell research.  Why should taxpayers be asked to spend billions of dollars on research that private companies refuse to fund?

 

It is unconscionable that the liberal media refuses to make the distinction between embryonic stem cells, which require the destruction of human life and which have led to no cures, and adult stem cells, which are free from ethical considerations and which already have proven so effective in the treatment of numerous diseases.

 

Perhaps we can excuse actors who are misinformed, and who therefore mislead.  But we cannot excuse those who hold, or who seek to hold, public offices from which they will make decisions pertaining to the funding of research that is contrary to our values and contrary to good science.

 

On November 7^th, we need to know where each candidate on each race on our ballot stands on the question of adult verses embryonic stem cell research, and on all the other values questions.                                                                                              

 

A good place to start that process is our Web site, OhioElectionCentral.com.

 

We encourage you to go to OhioElectionCentral.com, insert your zip code, and then study the answers of every candidate.  Know where they stand on they stand on the important issues, on the life and death issues.

 

Then, armed with that information, vote your values.