This article is full of truths. Financially it is unquestionably the biggest argument for stem cell research to be federally funded as yet to be written. But don't make the mistake of jumping to the conclusion that the article states funding embryonic stem cells is the best use of Federal funds.

There is more to embryonic stem cell research than finances. Lets look at the facts found in the recent release of the National Parkinson Foundation Newsletter. There is an article in this journal that interviews some of the foremost researchers of movement disorders. The general concensus is that stem cell therapy will not, I repeat, not provide a solution, if ever, in up to 20 or more years. The etiology of the disease shows the simplistic idea of replacing the dopamine neurons with new dopamine neurons will not work. It took a long time for 80% of the neurons to die before symptoms appear. What needs to be researched is when the destruction begins and what causes it. We need to find that process out before we can find a plausable treatment.

I will not say cure because the process of killing the neurons takes a long time, exposure to some type of long term toxin seems likely. It is time to stop the guessing at what will work, wasting research time and money, and spend money on understanding the process of neurological disorders.

Government funds do not just appear from nowhere. The government does not make money or inflation would be astronomical. It is collected from the people who work hard in this country. A country where home sales are going down, grandparents are raising their grandchildren because their children are unable to afford to move up and out. More veterans are joining the ranks of WWII, Korean war, War of the Gulf, as the War in Iraq continues. Another words, money is a limited commodity. How to spend it is not the theme of the article. The article explains why separate states cannot financially provide as high funding as the Federal Government. It does not state that the best use of the money is Embryonic stem cell research.

Hard Science? Science is a philosophy like any other study. Embryonic stem cell research is a theory not a fact and even should researchers discover a way to make them produce the correct number of stem cells to replace those that died, it will still be a theory because the reason the cells die off is still unknown. To keep throwing money at guessing without gathering the facts is silly. As more and more money is used to research the etiology of the illness and not just theories, possibility of a cure is much closer.

Vicky