What if George W. Bush’s wife had diabetes and lost some of her toes and then was facing the trauma of having her legs amputated below the knee? And what if she were losing her eyesight?

What if one of George W. Bush’s daughters was becoming ironing-board stiff or constantly shaking uncontrollably from Parkinson’s disease? Would he change his mind about federal funding for stem cell research that might help to find a cure for his loved ones? Wouldn’t it put the whole stem cell research debate in a different context for him?

This research will continue somewhere in the world. New Jersey was the first state to allocate state funds for the research and California leads the way in the amount of money earmarked for research.

Let’s not keep using this issue of stem-cell research as a political football that only polarizes and divides.

Each day more information becomes available and more possibilities are explored. There is no question that we need cures for diabetes and Parkinson’s disease and perhaps other diseases that have not been so publicly debated.

If you oppose embryonic stem cell research on ethical/moral principles, that is your right. However, then it should become your responsibility to help find ways to research for cures through methods that would be viable, workable and consistent with your value system.

Don’t waste your energy on criticizing and judging. Use that energy for finding some common ground and for working together toward goals that are attainable and acceptable.

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