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The Oregonian
Monday, May 22, 2006
OpEd: Stem Cell Research - The Forgotten Ones Still Wait, Still Hope
The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act simmers in the Senate's
kitchen. The bill, already passed by the House, would expand the number of
stem cell lines that are eligible for federally funded research. It could
accelerate scientific progress toward cures and treatments for a wide
range of diseases. Yet Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist refuses to
serve it up. Before the Christmas recess, Frist promised to present the
bill early in the 2006 session. All reasonable explanations for his
failure to follow through evaporated long ago.
Pundits talk about the "wedge" aspects of the bill. We are told it will
pass and that when it pops up like toast on the president's desk, he
will butter it with a veto. Evidently, the bill involves nuanced
implications for the midterm elections and the 2008 presidency.
Forgotten in this menu of conjecture are the lives of those whom stem
cell research seeks to improve. The emphasis has shifted away from the
desperation of those in need to the trivial hand-wringing of those
seeking re-election. The pundits have their day with the Machiavellian
plots. Meanwhile, those who take sustenance from the mere hope of relief,
wait.
As a patient advocate for those with spinal cord injuries and the
father of a quadriplegic, I know a few things about waiting and about hope.
When hope is all you have, you tend to help yourself. My plate is full.
I believe that restorative therapies are possible in my son's lifetime.
Yet I wait, along with millions of other Americans experiencing
debilitating conditions, for permission to partake.
It has been nearly five years since President Bush established his
policy on stem cells. A policy, I should add, whose rationale was based on
disinformation as egregious as that for WMD.
My son and his peers wait while scientists and families attempt to
bring democratic process to this autocratic policy. They hope that the
future of regenerative medicine will provide answers. Frist chooses to put
this hope on the back burner. He chooses to make these individuals wait
while he cooks up the most politically expedient course. For him there
is no urgency. He, a doctor, and our born-again president seem hardened
to compassion.
These two powerful men hold opposing views on the research. However, in
thwarting the legislation, each reaps benefits from stifling the dreams
of those less powerful. Such is the cynical world of politics.
Apparently, they measure leadership not in the number of lives to whom they can
deliver hope but by the number of votes they can deliver to the right
side of the aisle every other November.
For that reason, research is delayed. Research delayed is research
denied. Waiting not only lengthens the imprisonment for those who hope. It
condemns those who, in the future, will be victimized. For those
waiting and hoping now and those who will eventually wait and hope, there is
urgency. The demand for fast-tracking stem cell research is nothing
more or less than a health writ of habeas corpus.
The pundits have missed the real story. They serve us an appetizer of
political intrigue and garnish it with supposition. The public is
starved for the truth. The real story is why we wait when a majority of
Americans favor this legislation. The real story is why hope is denied.
John Smith of Hood River is a writer and patient advocate and is
postmaster in Odell.
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