StemCell Research--Calif. Prop 71

This letter was written to a leading proponent of the little god philosophy of "let them die." Fortunately in California his horrible cruel philosophy lost in the election and Prop 71 was passed. Praise Jesus!


Dear Mr. Hiltzik,

My son is one of those who might benefit from stem cell research. There are eight houses on our cul-de-sac and in four of them are people who might benefit--cerebral palsy victim, spinal cord injury victim, mentally challenged child, Alzheimer's grandparent, and autoimmune arthritis. I hardly think Mr. Klein is wrong to think that half the families in California could benefit from embryonic stem cell research except perhaps to understate its ultimate the potential.

ESC research should have started in 2000. If religious zealots had not seized control of our federal government, we would have cures now.

No matter your discontent with Mr. Klein’s attitude, Prop. 71 jumped started stem cell research in this country. Other states all across the country suddenly found money and facilities for ESC research after prop 71 passed. They did not want to lose their biotech researchers in a brain drain to California.

My wife and I lost a child to a spontaneous abortion twenty years ago. If at that time, we could have donated part of that child to research we would have. We would have a great since of satisfaction knowing our lost child's organs or tissues were alive and living in someone else or helping to find cures. Even now I grieve for that child I never knew. I would find comfort if I knew part of that child was still alive.

I imagine in vitro fertilization parents feel the same way about their frozen embryos. Better part of them is alive helping to alleviate suffering than thrown in a medical trash bin.

Our youngest son has been racked by an autoimmune arthritis for which there is no animal model to test medicines and therapies on. ESC through nuclear transfer will allow the creation of immune system components that have exactly the same arthritis as my son. These components can be used to find cures either grown in a lab setting or in the body of a specialized immune deficient mouse.

People of my faith and my political party have been so mean and so cruel to get in the way of this research. If Al Gore had been allowed to become president, those potential cures prevented by Bush and his “religious” allies might be here now. Perhaps my crippled son might never have been ravished by this disease. Eighteen months ago, he was an athletic college senior. Today he sits in a wheel chair barely able to walk a few steps, talk above a whisper or even type or play video games. Joints and tendons including his vocal cords have become swollen and hard to use. His fingers swell like painful sausages. The three years of Bush and Tom Delay have cost my son and all of us so much.

You cannot imagine how horrible it is to watch a strong young man with a bright future become a withered up invalid in constant pain. I knew intellectually such horror existed, but the difference between knowing something can happen and seeing it happen to a loved one is an agony I hope you never have to experience.

Please leave Mr. Klein alone. No matter how inept or imperious his handling of the initiative's finances, he has done far more than you or I to get cures for disease for which in the past there was no hope of a cure ever. The hope we have today because of prop 71 may not live up to our loftiest expectations or come as soon as we hoped it would. But just to have hope in the midst of emotional agony is something very precious. I thank Mr. Klein for that. You should too.


darwindad@cox.net

P.S. I have attached pictures of my son and my wife so that you might know there are real people hurt when you help the forces of intolerance and cruelty delay cures.