A very important man in my life has been suffering with Parkinson’s since he was 29. He is now 53. It takes him minutes to walk from his bedroom to his bathroom, clinging to walls so he will not fall. He lost his job, his wife, his speech, his ability to play his guitar, his ability to sing. He is a writer who can barely type. Even the enamel on his teeth has worn away courtesy of his medications. For 20 years the medical community has been telling him that “a cure is around the corner.”
Now our president has seen to it that broader federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, which holds such promise, will not be made available (“Bush draws battle lines with 1st veto; Democrats and some in GOP vow to push for stem cell research,” Page 1, July 20). I pray that Congress has the courage to override this veto that President Bush has justified with his painfully simpleminded, wrongheaded reasoning. We must remove the roadblocks and allow this research to flourish.
Millions are suffering from Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, spinal-chord injuries and more. If Bush had to live one day inside the body of a Parkinson’s patient, I guarantee he would change his mind.
