where wildly different is perfectly normal
Shame on you, Mr. President
Shame on you, Mr. President

Shame on you, Mr. President

You vetoed hope. I don’t know how you can sleep at night. There are thousands of people, real, live, voting people out there in desperate need of medical advances to beat the diseases they have. Embryos, uh, don’t vote. They’re simply cells. Cells that otherwise would have been discarded because they were never implanted into a woman’s uterus. And I don’t buy the “adopted embryo” argument. Not many petri dishes of cells are being adopted; far more are being destroyed.

This country has a long history of medical discoveries. We need more people going into science, into research. But interest in math and science is waning. It’s no big surprise. When you have to fight for your right to do research, instead of actually doing the research… This country is falling behind.

This bill should not have been vetoed. No one knows for sure if research on embryonic stem cells would discover cures for diseases. But we won’t know if we can’t try.

This hits close to home, especially this week. A year ago this week my grandma died of Alzheimer’s. Not suspected Alzheimer’s, but actual, debilitating, long and drawn out Alzheimer’s. That is a disease that is much worse on the family than the actual person suffering from it. It was horrifying to watch her decline. I’d only see her maybe once a year in recent years, and the decline was breathtaking. I am comforted that she was not in any real pain, and that she got to meet my boys before she died. But it scares me. Gram was one of many siblings, and most, if not all, were afflicted by Alzheimer’s in some way. Some died of it, some died of other causes, coupled with the Alzheimer’s. So when my mom repeats to me the same story in 24 hours, using almost the same words, my heart stops. We used to laugh about Gram’s “short loop”…it’s not so funny anymore. And when I have yet another CRS moment (Can’t Remember Shit), I pray it’s just stress and the fact that I can’t finish a thought from one moment to the next because one of the boys interrupts me. If I lost my PDA, life as I know it would stop. Right now I’m having trouble with it, and I can’t back it up, and if I lose the data on there…aghh…best I don’t think about it.

Also this week, along the same lines…we found out last night that our sister in law likely has MS. She was taken to the hospital earlier this week with half of her body numb. Many tests later, the doctors are pretty certain that it’s MS. She’s only 32, two little kids. I did a lot of research on MS earlier this year when a doctor suspected I had some sort of eye condition that was a precursor to MS. Scared the crap out of me. (Turned out to be stress-big surprise-and clenching my teeth while I slept to the point of causing severe problems). So MS is bad. Very bad. My mother in law commented last night that “at least it wasn’t fatal.” Uh, right. Not exactly the best attitude. MS may not be fatal in and of itself, but it sucks, it takes your life away. My heart just goes out to my sister in law and her family. Their lives are about to change drastically.

One of my best friends growing up had Juvenile Diabetes. We kept in touch via email and the occasional phone call. I haven’t heard from her in a few years and I can’t find her. I’m afraid the diabetes finally killed her. Juvenile Diabetes does not need to happen, I fully believe it is curable with enough research.

My other grandma had Parkinson’s. Do we see a thread here? We, as a society, need to scream for more research so that these diseases that affect everyone can be cured. I believe, ever so strongly, that we are intelligent beings for a reason and that we need to use that intelligence for the common good. This argument for stem-cell research is getting knotted up with the pro-life argument. If you’re pro-life, you need to be all pro-life. That includes these people suffering from these horrible, life-sucking diseases as well as a collection of cells floating around in a petri dish. Which one of these lives is more important?

I fully expect to be flamed heartily here. This is a touchy, personal topic and there’s really no middle ground. Just, please, if you do leave a comment, have the guts to not post as Anonymous. And as you read this post, and think about it, think about the people in your life who suffer from these diseases. I guarantee that you know at least one person who suffers from a disease that could (and I mean could, because there’s no guarantee) be cured from extensive research, possibly stem-cell research. Does that change your mind? Solidify your argument? Think about this today. What if you had one of these diseases? Would that change your mind? Solidify your argument?

Have a good day.

2 Comments

  1. Jen

    Yup. So were my husband and beloved sons.

    And my grandma with Alzheimer’s.

    And my grandma with Parkinson’s.

    And my friend with JD.

    And my sister in law with MS.

Whaddya think?

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