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Continued ...
RONALD REAGAN'S LEGACY
By Gov. Howard Dean M.D.
Most Americans would agree that
Ronald Reagan had some solid accomplishments as president, although
the rush by the rightwing to put his face on the ten dollar bill
or on Mt. Rushmore seems a bit hasty. Ironically, one of his
greatest accomplishments may occur after his death, and that
is the extraordinary effort by his wife, Nancy, to use the circumstances
of his death to educate people about the benefits of stem cell
research.
Let me be clear about this, I
am a Democrat and was not a fan of the Reagan administration's
policies. But over the last ten years, no American could fail
to admire the exceptional courage of Mrs. Reagan as she lived
what must have been a very difficult existence watching her husband
inexorably lose all his mental faculties, unable to even recognize
his wife.
Mrs. Reagan also seems to understand
how exceptionally difficult life must be for the thousands of
other American families who do not have the support systems accorded
to ex-presidents and how important hope is to all those families.
Hope takes the form of a potential cure, which means hope requires
medical research, which some religious authorities may not like.
Mrs. Reagan has the courage to stand up against the anti-scientific
biases of many in the Republican Party and to call for science
to be respected and hope to be restored.
There is no guarantee that stem
cell research can produce a cure for Alzheimer's disease. But
stem cells show promise by helping to prevent or cure chronic
and life-shortening diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis,
Parkinson's and various cardiac diseases.
Many Republicans continue to
link stem cell research to the abortion debate. Nothing could
be further from the truth. Embryonic stem cells come from embryos
which have been created for the purpose of helping infertile
couples have children. In this process, a few embryos may be
implanted in a woman's uterus, to be born nine months later.
A much larger number of embryos will be frozen for future use.
The vast majority of these will ultimately be discarded. But,
these discarded embryos can produce something good, they can
potentially save the life or health of a stranger. Stem cells,
the basis of all the cells in our body, can be saved from these
embryos, and can become tissue which can potentially replace
diseased tissue in human beings who are suffering greatly, as
President Reagan did. Or these embryos can be discarded, as they
usually are now.
What Mrs. Reagan and other advocates
of stem cell research are asking is that the embryos be put to
humanitarian and scientific uses, instead of being wasted. Perhaps
the research will fail. But, if we do not try, we will never
know. President Bush has confined stem cell research to such
a few cell-lines, which makes most American research meaningless.
Most of the research is now going
on in other countries, with a few exceptions in the U.S., such
as wealthy universities that can afford to refuse federal funding.
This means that Americans who suffer these diseases will be last
in line to get the benefits of this potentially extraordinary
research. It also means a generation of American scientists and
doctors will fall behind their foreign counterparts in using
whatever lifesaving technologies come out of this research.
As a physician, I am embarrassed
that America would willingly and deliberately choose to set aside
science and the hope it offers. As a Democrat, I say to Nancy
Reagan, I'll do whatever I can to help you win this one for the
Gipper.
Howard Dean, former governor
of Vermont, is the founder of Democracy for America, a grassroots
organization that supports socially progressive and fiscally
responsible political candidates. E-mail Howard at howarddean@democracyforamerica.com
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