142 Patient Advocacy Groups Can't Be Wrong?

Yesterday, the pro-stem cell Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR) held a Capitol Hill press conference at which 142 patient advocacy groups urged that the Bush Administration's prohibitions on stem cell research be overturned.

?While the Administration's policy was met with great hope, recent developments in the research demand an expansion,? said my friend Daniel Perry, President of CAMR. ?In the past three years since the policy was announced, more than 4 million Americans have died from diseases that embryonic stem cell research has the potential to help. We just can?t afford to wait any longer,? he added.

At the CAMR press conference, a bipartisan coalition of federal legislators announced that they are introducing a bill that would lift federal funding restrictions on stem cell research. Never mind the issue of federal funding, the limits set by the Bush administration have had a chilling effect on private stem cell research efforts?not least of which arises from the considerable bureaucratic hassle of keeping federal pipettes and post-docs separate from private pipettes and post-docs.

It matters a lot to cardiac, Alzheimers and cancer patients whether a treatment is developed a year from now or ten years from now. Bush might want to consider just how many voters these patient advocacy groups represent.