Parkinson's patients, researchers await change in stem cell research restrictions

Leigh Frillici
http://www.nwpf.org/News.aspx?Item=2579

khou.com - Living with Parkinson’s for 24 years has not been an easy pill for Nina Brown to swallow.

“Parkinson’s used to steal minutes from my life. Now it’s hours and days,” Brown said.

For the last eight years, President Bush has restricted funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Brown believes that put a cure for Parkinson’s out of reach.

“Our scientists have had their hands tied,” she said.

Now she and others like her are counting on President-Elect Obama to lift those restrictions.

That would also help Dr. William Brinkley’s research at Baylor.

He believes stem cell research could lead to cures for cancer and diabetes – and maybe even help doctors grow new organs for patients.

“An embryonic cell is like a blank check, if you think about it. It can develop into anything,” he said.

But the source of the stem cells has stirred controversy.

“You have the moral question of where this can lead, because these are the embryonic stem cells that are the basis of life,” State Senator Dan Patrick, a Republican from Houston, said.

“They are going to be disposed of in the clinic and washed down the drain so to speak, so it’s really saving lives,” Dr. Brinkley said.

“There have been no scientific breakthroughs from embryonic stem cells – all the breakthroughs have been with adult stem cells,” Patrick said.

Nina Brown argues the breakthroughs are happening, just not in the U.S.

“Monkeys have been cured in Israel for Parkinson’s with stem cell research,” she said.

“It sometimes makes me wish Nina was a monkey,” her husband, Joe Brown, said.

Until something changes, they can only wish for a future without Parkinson’s.