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Laura Ann

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  1. Here is an article that was in the local paper when the judge was first diagnosed. I was surprised to read that he was having brain surgery. I have to wonder if it was really necessary......

    Kentucky Supreme Court Justice McAnulty Recovering Following Surgery

    Brain Surgery performed July 11, 2007 at Jewish Hospital

    Louisville, KY (July 12, 2007)…Kentucky Supreme Court Justice William E. McAnulty, Jr., underwent brain surgery at Jewish Hospital on Wednesday, July 11. The 59 year-old Justice was diagnosed with lung cancer a little more than two weeks ago, which had also spread to the brain.The surgery, which lasted a little more than one hour, was performed by neurosurgeon Wayne G. Villanueva, M.D. “A ‘gross total resection’ was performed on Justice McAnulty to remove a lesion from the base of the cranium,” said Villanueva. “It was metastasis to the brain from the lung cancer. He came through the surgery extremely well. We moved him to our intensive care unit following surgery, which is normal for this type of procedure. We plan to move him to a regular patient room today.”Following recovery from his July 11 surgery, medical oncologist Jeffrey Hargis will be coordinating planned chemotherapy and radiation therapy. “The next phase of his treatment should be starting later this month,” said Hargis.His wife Kristie said, “We appreciate the kind thoughts and prayers from everyone and are especially thankful for all the support we have received from family and friends. We also want to thank all the wonderful doctors and nurses involved for the great care he is receiving at Jewish Hospital.” McAnulty has four children, two grown children from a previous marriage and two younger children, ages four and 12. The McAnulty family will not be providing media interviews at this time.

  2. Obama trying to quit smoking—again

    By Christi Parsons and Manya Brachear

    Tribune staff reporters

    Published February 5, 2007, 9:46 PM CST

    After struggling to quit smoking in the past, Sen. Barack Obama is trying a cessation aid not available over the counter: public attention.

    Obama (D-Ill.) resolved to quit his cigarette habit over the winter holidays, just weeks before his expected presidential campaign would make photographers and reporters an even more regular part of his life.

    He said in a Monday interview that, although he has never been a heavy smoker, he has quit for periods over the last several years but then slipped back into the habit. On the cusp of a potential presidential bid seemed the right time to quit for good, he said.

    "I've never been a heavy smoker," Obama said. "I've quit periodically over the last several years. I've got an ironclad demand from my wife that in the stresses of the campaign I don't succumb. I've been chewing Nicorette strenuously."

    The incentive to quit is great for any office seeker, as increasingly negative attitudes about smoking translate into political pressure not to do it—or at least not to be caught doing it publicly. At a time when most willing public figures also are expected to serve as role models, those with unhealthy habits face intense pressure to leave them behind.

    Americans haven't elected an open and unabashed cigarette smoking president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, though others such as Lyndon Johnson smoked on occasion. The rules seem also to extend to political spouses such as First Lady Laura Bush, who found it necessary to quash her habit, or at least take it underground.

    In Obama's case, the pressure isn't just political. His wife has always been concerned about his smoking and, over the holidays, according to family friend Valerie Jarrett, the two of them agreed that he "should stop now."

    "He began the process of quitting over Christmas," Jarrett said. "I have not heard of him smoking over the last several weeks."

    There's a little hedge room in the time frame, allowing for the possibility that Obama's resolve might have slipped a time or two. Obama didn't clarify the point.

    Kicking the habit is good for just about any politician's image, said Irving Rein, a Northwestern University communications studies professor and author of "High Visibility," which examines the marketing of celebrities. Attitudes toward smokers have changed dramatically since FDR's triumphal display of his ivory cigarette holder in an era when smoking made a person seem elegant and powerful.

    Back then, Hollywood glamorized cigarettes almost as fashion accessories. Attitudes had radically changed by the late 1990s, when First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized actress Julia Roberts for portraying a movie character with a compulsive smoking habit.

    For Obama, it's an especially smart play to grind out his last cigarette, Rein said.

    "Brand has become so big with personalities. It includes the kind of suit he wears and the shoes he chooses," said Rein. "Smoking is part of that package. It doesn't go with the social, environmental message of reform he would like to project. His image would be impacted by it."

    Regardless of whether his image has suffered, his lungs most likely have. Longtime friends say Obama was a smoker when he was in his first two years of college at Occidental College in California, from 1979 to 1981.

    He said Monday that he has never smoked more than 10 cigarettes a day, and usually only four or five. He said the number usually went up when he was either writing or campaigning.

    He said he isn't using the patch because he worries that they're too strong for him.

    "I'm not somebody who's all that hooked," he said. "I didn't want more nicotine coming to me than I had been ingesting."

    While quitting during such a stressful period as a presidential campaign may be difficult, public health advocates count it as a victory for them.

    "I hope he makes it a public fight," said Mark Peysakhovich of the American Heart Association, who used to lobby Obama on anti-smoking policies and other public health issues when Obama was a member of the Illinois Senate. "If he's got a nic fit and he's in a bad mood, I hope some of that comes out. Maybe it will encourage other people to be brave enough to try."

    It might even score some political points for Obama, he said.

    "It could make him more human to people," said Peysakhovich, "if he's got the same kind of struggles the rest of us have."

  3. Terrazzano the 'voice of lung cancer'

    BY JAMIE TALAN

    jamie.talan@newsday.com

    Lung cancer kills more women every year than any other cancer. In 2007, that will mean an estimated 72,000 deaths.

    One in five of them has never smoked, according to a new study by Stanford University scientists. Still, the continued stigma about lung cancer -- the belief that people are somehow to blame because of the link to tobacco and smoking -- has allowed federal research dollars to lag behind other cancers, said Susan Mantel, executive director of the Manhattan-based Joan's Legacy. And the fact that most people are diagnosed in later stages, she said, means lung cancer patients die sooner and their voices are heard less often.

    Lauren Terrazzano made her voice heard. Her column, Life, With Cancer, tackled issues of living with the disease, from stingy research funding to how to laugh in the face of pain.

    "The lung cancer community is really tracking her story," Mantel said Monday. "Not just because she is writing about lung cancer, but she is writing about patients and about bridging the gap between cancers. I get e-mails from people all the time. It makes a tremendous difference."

    "She has given a voice to lung cancer," said Mantel, whose organization honored Terrazzano for her work.

    Regina Vidaver, head of the National Lung Cancer Partnership in Madison, Wis., agreed. "It helps immensely. This is a disease that still has a lot of stigma attached to it." Indeed, if 15 percent of 200,000 men and women who develop lung cancer every year have no history of smoking, and 50 percent had a past history but had given up smoking years or decades earlier, "that is a lot of people," Vidaver said. Regardless of someone's smoking habits or history, she said, "Nobody deserves cancer."

    What's more, a form of lung cancer known as Bronchioloalveolar Carcinoma (BAC) whose incidence is rising worldwide, has no link to smoking, said Dr. Rob McKenna, head of thoracic surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Women seem to be at increased risk, for unknown reasons, McKenna said. About 20 percent of his patients have BAC.

    When caught early, most lung cancers respond to available treatments. Still, 60 percent of lung cancer patients die within the first 18 months of the illness. McKenna and others who treat it are trying to spread the word on the importance of screening by diagnostic technique equivalent to mammography for breast cancer.

    Today, 80 percent of lung cancer patients are diagnosed in the later stages, McKenna said. Earlier screening, whether a chest X-ray or a CAT scan of the lungs, could, according to one study by Weill Cornell Medical Center doctors, reverse that so that 80 percent of cases are diagnosed in earlier, more treatable stages. "We would like to see screening for lung cancer," McKenna said, though his colleagues are embroiled in controversy over whether screening could improve survival rates.

    The increase of lung cancer in women, some experts say, is parallel to the steady increase in men that was identified decades ago, and has now declined. Women started smoking later than men, and studies show that men stopped smoking sooner -- factors that could account for the increase in women.

    But that is just part of the story. The Stanford University study, led by Dr. Heather Wakelee, suggests that almost twice as many female lung cancer patients have never smoked, "and we need more research to figure out what is going on," said Wakelee.

    For more information on lung cancer:

    Joan's Legacy

    National Lung Cancer Partnership

    National Cancer Institute

    American Lung Association

    National Cancer Institute Smoking Quitline

    Lung Cancer Online, founded by Karen Parles, a Long Island woman diagnosed with lung cancer.

  4. Newsday columnist loses battle with cancer

    Lauren Terrazzano, longtime Newsday reporter and 'Life, With Cancer' columnist dies. She was 39.

    BY JOE HABERSTROH

    joe.haberstroh@newsday.com

    May 16, 2007

    Lauren Terrazzano, a tenacious Newsday reporter whose wide-ranging work documented lapses in society's treatment of the elderly and foster children and finally explored her own battle with lung cancer, died late Tuesday night at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. She was 39.

    News of Terrazzano's death shortly after 11:30 p.m. rocked the newsroom staff of Newsday, where she had worked since 1996. In a memo to the staff put out Wednesday morning, Newsday editor John Mancini described Terrazzano as a reporter "whose grit and diligence routinely shed light on the stories of those who may not have the means to illuminate readers on their own."

    Only last month, Terrazzano was honored for her column, Life, With Cancer, by the Society of the Silurians, an organization in New York of veteran journalists. Eve Berliner, chairwoman of the group's awards committee, called the columns "moving and honest, personal, strong and funny."

    Readers agreed. Dozens responded to her April 10 column where she announced that she had two to three months to live. She denied neither anger nor regrets, but she also pledged to live as normally as possible. She would get up in the morning, go for a walk and try to write. "What matters most is the present moment," she wrote. "Not two to three months. Or two to three years. Or two to three hours. Just now."

    Since being diagnosed in August, 2004, Terrazzano underwent several surgeries and was her own best health advocate. She battled back from the disease, only to learn that it had returned in March of last year -- just days after returning from her honeymoon with husband Al Baker, a former Newsday reporter who now works for the New York Times.

    A few months later, she started writing about her illness. "She brought to the column her reporting zeal and an unflinching determination to describe her situation accurately. This doggedness was no news to her doctors," Mancini said.

    Current and former colleagues, many of whom had attended her wedding last spring in Manhattan, expressed deep sadness. For many of them, Terrazzano was "a big-hearted softie and a hard-boiled detective at the same time," in the words of former Newsday reporter Brian Donovan. Day to day, she was a blunt defender of her copy, a specialist in the journalistic art of wedging one's foot in almost-closed doors, a skilled reporter who used her investigative talent to highlight injustices against the most vulnerable, in particular children.

    "Lauren was a wonderful reporter and a wonderful person," said Anthony Marro, who was Newsday editor when Terrazzano was hired. "We all knew from the minute she walked into the newsroom just how much passion and tenacity she had. Some of us didn't know until her fight with cancer just how much courage she had."

    Her final Life, With Cancer column, about a fund-raiser for lung-cancer research, appeared online Tuesday. From the start, the column, like its author, was never to be pigeon-holed. In one column, she took people to task for insensitive comments toward those with cancer; in another, she emoted about a Cheez-Doodle gorge-out after a treatment setback; in still another, she shared her New Year's resolution: "To live."

    Friends recalled a life-loving woman who did not miss opportunities to travel -- to Cuba, to Spain with her husband, to Central America, where in 2005, during a vacation, she reported on deadly mudslides in Guatemala and took photographs later exhibited at a gallery in Huntington. Closer to home, she relished walks in Central Park, often with the cap of her beloved Boston Red Sox pulled low on her head and her little white dog Bartufalo on the leash. For weeks, readers debated the mutt's lineage (its face suggested a bichon, many wrote, and also possibly, a Wheaten).

    Her highly personal column represented a departure from her previous work. Her Newsday career had first been marked by her resourceful reporting in the newspaper's Pulitzer-winning coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800 in July 1996 off the South Shore of Long Island. For 24 hours, she and Baker were the only reporters inside the Coast Guard rescue center at East Moriches.

    Soon, she became one of the go-to general assignment writers at the newspaper.

    "She could get anyone to talk to her, whether it was families of victims, learning disabled children, or social services bureaucrats," recalled Miriam Pawel, who hired Terrazzano when she was an assistant managing editor at Newsday. "I think that talent stemmed from two things. She had a fierce, single-minded devotion to writing the best possible story at all times, and she radiated a natural empathy with people that made them trust her to tell their stories. And she never betrayed that trust."

    Ben Weller, Newsday business editor, noted that Terrazzano frequently was asked "to interview people who've experienced a great loss and many of those people stayed in touch with her over the years. That's a testament to the way she treated them: with concern, respect and dignity."

    In the newsroom, Terrazzano was the picture of intensity. She spoke in low tones into the telephone receiver glued to her ear, smile flashing with the demands of the assignment, her expressive eyes framed by a swept-over mane of long brown hair that appeared buoyed by its own private gust. All the while she sat cross-legged in her office chair, her feet off the floor.

    Like many in the trade, she papered an unkempt workstation with world-weary quotes and rude cartoons. One belied her feistiness: "Some Days, It's Hard to Know Who to Hate." Another, more prominently displayed, captured her spirit of high ambition and higher idealism: "The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."

    Not infrequently, her stories forced local governments to acknowledge missteps, or prompted readers to offer help to the subjects of her articles. In 2004, not long before her diagnosis, she worked with Newsday reporters Amanda Harris, Dawn MacKeen and Eden Laikin on an investigative series that revealed widespread problems at Long Island's assisted living centers. The series won first place in the "Depth Reporting" category from the New York State Associated Press Association. Legislation to toughen inspections was introduced a month after the series appeared and later that year, then-Gov. George Pataki signed into law the Assisted Living Reform Act.

    Motivated by what former Newsday Editor Howard Schneider called "a highly calibrated sense of outrage," Terrazzano took few pains to hide her joy when her stories hit their mark. At about time the assisted-living home series' impact became clear, she sought out Schneider. As he recalls the moment, she had a glint in her eye: "A half smile crossed her face. 'We did it,' she said."

    By the time of the assisted-living series, she had spent years laying the foundation for a beat covering social issues on Long Island. Overloaded county caseworkers, homeless people, kids stuck with abusive parents: These were her subjects. Over time, individuals' tales of trouble knit together in an authoritative portrait of Long Island's have-nots and the often overwhelmed agencies that serve them.

    "She didn't spend her life writing about celebrities in rehab or rich guys buying oceanfront estates or who won 'American Idol,'" said Alex Martin, a former assistant managing editor at Newsday who now works at the Wall Street Journal. "Instead, Lauren would spend her time in homeless shelters and rooming houses and juvenile detention centers -- all the places where the people who society would rather forget can be found."

    Terrazzano grew up in Massachusetts, graduating from the high school in Tewksbury. She was the only child of Frank and Virginia Terrazzano, of Hull, Mass., and they survive her.

    In 1990, Terrazzano earned a bachelor's degree in communications, with a concentration in Italian and art history, from Boston University. She earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1994.

    She took her first reporting job with the Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass. From there, she went to Trader's Magazine in New York; then the Daily News in New York for a one-year reporting internship; then to the Record in Hackensack, N.J.; and, in March 1996, to Newsday.

    Terrazzano and Baker were married March 11, 2006, at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Name of Jesus in Manhattan. A reception followed at Columbia University, where Terrazzano worked as an adjunct professor.

    In March, she and her husband marked their first anniversary with a hike up Bear Mountain, in the state park 50 miles north of New York. Eighteen months earlier, Terrazzano had led 40 of her colleagues and friends up the mountain in a charity walk for cancer research. It was a sunny day of triumph. When she made the hike this year, the weather had cooled and her prognosis had darkened. The steps came slowly.

    "In a sweep of melodrama," she wrote in her column of March 20, "I sat on a dry log and told them to go on without me. Perhaps the illness had simply taken its toll. But more than two hours later, we did, in fact, make it to the top. The icy, cold top. Victory."

    Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.

  5. Mary,

    What city and state do you live in? Maybe there is someone here who lives near your area and can offer you advise on some local resources.

    Laura

  6. March 29, 2007

    The Tony Snow I Know

    By Cal Thomas

    Nobody dislikes Tony Snow. By acclamation, people who know him say the White House press secretary is the most decent, kind and encouraging human being they have ever met. Speaking from personal experience, I can testify not only to his inner warmth and outer kindness, but also to the goodness of his wife, Jill, and their three children.

    The return of Snow's colon cancer comes only days after Elizabeth Edwards announced the return of her breast cancer. Snow was quick in his warm comments about the wife of the presidential candidate, which came just days before the discovery that cancer had moved to his liver. He can identify with Elizabeth Edwards.

    At a Jan. 31 dinner for media people in conjunction with the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Snow revealed his soul to the 100-plus hardened journalists and others in a hotel banquet room. He told us, "In many ways, having cancer was the very best thing that ever happened to me, other than marrying my wife."

    He said the death of his mother from colon cancer produced a "shadow that follows you." He said he wasn't afraid of dying, but is afraid of leaving his wife and kids. These are human emotions with which everyone can identify, whether or not they have had to deal with a potentially fatal disease.

    Snow spoke about the importance of "faith and attitude. You have to make a choice about whether you want to live." Speaking of a friend who had cancer in several parts of her body, he said faith and attitude are not decisive in whether you will live, "but they certainly are a great help, because those who give up, or give in to self-pity about how awful things are, a lot of times they don't make it."

    He said the disease caused him to ask where he would go with faith: "For a lot of us as kids, having faith is like sitting on Santa's lap; you pray because you want things and you want outcomes. But instead when you're faced with death, you don't really die, you get to go to a cooler place with maybe a sterner teacher. It's not that big a leap and you're going to see a lot of friends there." Now there's a sermon!

    So, how do you approach God, he wondered? Do you ask for favors, or do you do something that is very hard in the modern era, "which is learn how to give yourself to God, to surrender. It's not just saying 'God, it's in your hands,' but understanding whatever may come afterwards is a matter of not trying to get God to do stuff for you, except maybe to mow down some of the barriers that separate you from God, because for all of us, our vanities get in the way."

    Snow says his deepening faith didn't happen overnight. It began with realizing "how many people loved me." He said a lot of life is figuring out you're not in charge and figuring out who is. He started to pray, he said, and began to sense a growing presence of God in his life. He said after his first cancer surgery many people sent him letters that included Bible verses. Among his favorites was Psalm 91:2-3: "I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence.'"

    After his first cancer surgery, Snow said he had to stay in bed and he began reading the Bible more, "learning to pray" and to ask God to "draw me closer, please, (which) develops a hunger that is also a form of joy."

    He said colleagues frequently ask him what he will do after the White House? He says he might have had an answer before, but now he has no clue. "I put everything in God's hands."

    President Bush asked the country to pray for Tony. It was the right request. Knowing Tony Snow, he would also ask for prayers for his wife and children and, oh yes, for Elizabeth Edwards and her husband. One thing Tony is not is stingy in his love for God and for others. He is an authentic Christian in faith and in works.

    CalThomas@tribune.com

  7. Do you have the figures to back up the claim you made in your email? If you do please post them. Before you ask others to join you in your endeavor, it might be wise to supply the information so that others can make an informed decision based on real information not just belligerent accusations.

    Laura

  8. This just doesn't seem real...another precious loved one lost to this evil disease. All I can think of to say is what my little boy says everytime we pass the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery for our deceased service men and women and that is,

    "HAIL THE VICTORIOUS DEAD!!!"

    In my mind, Frank was and always will be the victor.

    My personal heartfelt condolences to his family.

    Laura Roberts

  9. What about losing the will to live, regardless of one's health? My grandparents were married for over sixty years, my grandmother passed away and my grandfather lasted about six weeks. This also happened with my husbands grandparents.

    Laura

  10. Fact Sheet on Stem-Cell Research 8/3/2004

    By Elaine McGinnis

    Whyadult cells are superior to embryonic cells.

    What are stem-cells?

    Stem cells are unspecialized cells that continually renew themselves through cell division. Unlike other cells, stem cells begin as "blanks" without a dedicated task, but with an ability to become specialized. Scientists hope to use this capability to replace cells damaged by a broad spectrum of diseases.

    Why is there a fight involving stem-cell research?

    There are two different kinds of stem cells:-adult stem cells (ASC) and embryonic stem cells (ESC). adult stem cells can be found in the blood, bone marrow, skin, brain, liver, pancreas, fat, hair follicle, placenta, umbilical cord and amniotic fluid. The retrieval of these stem cells is relatively easy and does not harm the patient.

    However, embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) requires the destruction of an embryo, which is a human being at the beginning of life. The fight is not over whether to legalize embryonic research--it is already legal--but over the source of funding. Because it kills a human being, opponents of ESCR do not want taxpayers to fund it.

    Does embryonic stem-cell research really kill a life?

    An embryo is the earliest stage of human development, from a single cell up to about eight weeks. It contains 46 chromosomes, which hold all the genes necessary for development. Ward Kischer, a human embryologist, says, "Virtually every human embryologist and every major textbook of human embryology states that fertilization marks the beginning of the life of the new individual human being." [Emphasis in the original.]

    Five to seven days after an egg has been fertilized, "the embryo forms a structure called a blastocyst. Consisting of merely 140 cells, this hollow, fluid-filled sphere is made up of two types of cells: those that form the 'shell' of the sphere and those located within the 'shell.'" The cells in the "inner" part are the embryonic stem cells that are removed in order to do research, effectively destroying the embryo.

    Why do some claim there are advantages to ESCR?

    ESCs originally were thought to have an advantage because they have unlimited growth and potential for forming all tissues. Yet disastrous effects have occurred.

    Increasing evidence proves embryonic stem cells are difficult to control and preserve. According to Dr. Peter Andrews of the University of Sheffield, England, "Simply keeping human embryonic stem cells alive can be a challenge." And Dr. David Prentice, professor of Life Sciences at Indiana State University, says, "The supposed advantages of ESCs are hindrances when it comes to transplants to repair damaged tissue. When transplanted into experimental animals, these cells generally continue this untamed behavior, with a tendency to form tumors or various unwanted tissues."

    Indeed, rats with diabetes and Parkinson's disease were treated with embryonic stem cells and while some received benefits, many developed tumors.

    Areadult stem cells beneficial?

    Yes. Patients are already being treated with ASCs. Studies using ASCs include diabetes, heart disease, sickle cell anemia, acute myeloid leukemia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and Crohn's disease.

    ASCs have also successfully fought brain tumors, retinoblastoma, multiple myeloma, ovarian, testicular, and breast cancers. More than 30 anti-cancer uses for stem cells have been tested on humans, and many are already in routine therapeutic use.

    Remarking on a fellow colleague's discovery that certain kinds of ASCs can convert into other tissue (the supposed advantage of ESCs), Dr. David Hess, a neurologist at the Medical College of Georgia, says, "I think Verfaillie's work is most exciting and translatable into the clinical arena. She seems to have a subpopulation with basically all the benefits of ESCs and none of the drawbacks."

    Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Michael Fumento asserts the advantage of-adult stem cells: "Embryonic stem cell research is so far behind it's like a joke. … We're getting everything we need out of nonembryonic stem cells, and what we're getting is incredible."

    Then why is there controversy?

    "There's a huge ESC industry out there, with countless labs packed with innumerable scientists desperately seeking research funds," Fumento says. "Private investors avoid them because they don't want to wait perhaps 10 years for commercial products that very well may not materialize and because they're spooked by the ethical concerns. That leaves essentially only Uncle Sam's piggy bank."

    Could stem cells treat Alzheimer's disease?

    Not likely. According to stem-cell researcher Michael Shelanski, co-director of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Medical Center, the "chance of doing repairs to Alzheimer's brains by putting in stem cells is small."

    U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Florida), a practicing physician, agrees: "Whether embryonic or-adult stem cells, Alzheimer's disease is one of the least likely where stem cells could be useful."

    When asked why ESC proponents claim it could treat Alzheimer's, one ESC researcher said, "People need a fairy tale."

    What about the 400,000 embryos that will be discarded if not used for research?

    According to the 2002 RAND Corporation Survey, 400,000 frozen embryos are stored in fertility clinics. Advocates of ESCR argue that if they are not used for research, then they will be discarded. However, the same survey found that 88.2 percent of the embryos are reserved for future attempts at pregnancy. Only 2.2 percent are to be discarded and 2.8 percent have been slated for research. Overwhelmingly, parents don't want their embryos treated like research material or trash.

    Did President George W. Bush ban stem-cell research?

    President Bush did not ban stem-cell research. In August of 2001, the president designated $250 million toward-adult stem-cell research. He announced that the government would not support the destruction of embryos with federal funds, but that he will permit funding of research on already existing stem-cell lines taken from embryos.

    If we do not research ESCs, then will we have a brain drain?

    Advocates argue that without an increase federal funding for ESCR our top scientists will leave the country to work abroad. However, European Union Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin says that the main aim in loosening the existing laws on ESCR in Europe "was to stop a brain drain of the brightest scientists leaving Europe to work in countries like the U.S." The BBC released a report showing that "the USA continues to dominate the biotechnology industry." Countries and U.S. states that limit or ban embryo research or cloning have thriving biotech industries.

    Conclusion

    Adultstem-cells are both effective and ethical. Embryonic stem-cells are obtained by killing embryos, and are too unstable to even begin human trials. We do not have to choose between curing lives or preserving lives of embryos; we can do both.

    Policy decisions should be based on facts and morality. The temptation to spend tax dollars on ESCR will lead to the same horrific outcome as other unethical scientific endeavors that put the pursuit of knowledge above respect for human life.

    Elaine McGinnis is an intern with Concerned Women for America. She recently graduated from Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

    Sources

    "Baby Teeth Offer Another Effective Source of-adult Stem Cells," United Press International, from the Christian Life Resources Web site, as found at http://www.christianliferesources.com/c ... egoryID=56.

    C. Ward Kischer, "When Does Human Life Begin? The Final Answer," lifeissues.net, as found at http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/kisc/ ... gins1.html.

    Dave Weldon, MD, Congressional Record, "Human Embryo Stem Cell Research," page H4140. 16 June 2004.

    David Prentice, Ph.D., "the Real Promise of Stem Cell Research," Health News Digest, as found at http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/hl ... ll-17.html.

    "Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research," National Bioethics Advisory Commission, Executive Summary (Rockville, MD: September 1999), 1.

    Hannah M. Vick, "Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Ethically Wrong Treatment of the Tiniest of Humans," from the Concerned Women for America web site, as found at http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp? ... oryid=life

    Karla Dial, "Bush Makes Pro-Life Choice on Stem Cells," from the Citizen Web site, as found at http://www.family.org/cforum/citizenmag ... 17192.html.

    Michael Fumento, "The Stem Cell Cover-Up," Insight on the News-National, 16 May 2004 as found at http://www.insightmag.com/news/2004/05/ ... 2587.shtml.

    Rick Weiss, "Stem Cells An Unlikely Therapy for Alzheimer's," Washington Post, 10 June 2004, p.A03.

    "Stem Cells: A Primer," National Institutes of Health Web site, as found at http://www.nih.gov/news/stmcell/primer.htm.

    "Stem-Cell Line in the Sand," World, 18 August 2001, 7.

    Stephanie Porowski, "adult Stem-Cell Treatments: A Better Way," from Concerned Women for America web site, as found at, http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp? ... oryid=life

  11. Thank you, Welthy. I totally agree with what you said, especially the part about Randy being a moderater. His personal bias toward the support of stem-cell research has shone through his posts numerous times in the past. I have not responded until now, but I am completely against any of MY federal tax dollars spent on any research that involves the destruction of human life. My mother would never have wanted another life to be destroyed in order to save her own.

    Didn't everyone here start out as an embryo?

    Laura

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