Posted on 10/27/2006 8:09:48 AM PDT by Notwithstanding
If you haven't seen or heard the ad, actor Michael J. Fox apparently manipulated his Parkinson's medication so he could do a pro-stem-cell-research ad for a Missouri Democratic candidate, demonstrating what a Parkinson's patient without treatment looks like. In the ad, Fox implies that stem-cell research is the only hope for "millions of Americans -- Americans like me."
As a Parkinson's patient myself, I know that claim to be hogwash.
There are drug and non-drug therapies that ameliorate Parkinsonism for millions of patients. There apparently is even one that allows Fox to work as an actor -- without the physical effects he displayed on the ad.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
No one mentioned "crime" but you.
But nice try though.
His reference simply included him as a tool of the "progressive" agenda, specifically as another "sacred cow" of the liberal agenda to grab more and more of the national wealth to keep it from going back to the middle class, which pays the lion's share of it.
Same with Reeve. He came out on numerous PSAs and campaign commercials asking folks to support Stem Cell Research, research that might make him walk some day. In fact, John Edwards, Kerry's running mate said in 2004, "If John Kerry was president, people like Christopher Reeve would be walking again!"
What are they implying?
That Republicans didn't want Christopher Reeve to get well. They want MJF to continue twitch and jerk. They wanted the Jersey Widows husbands to die!!!!!!
By using these forlorn people, they can make such claims and then attack the defender if they dare to state the afflicted person is wrong. It's despicable!
The nice Dem will cure me, the mean republican wants me to die.It's sick and HE is pathetic. He's behaving like a cheap whore.
That doesn't include the newborn cord blood stem cell use. If Micheal J. Fox had banked his kids cord blood in a family cord blood bank, he might be much much closer to a cure than he is.
So far embryonic stem cells are only used in animal research, partly due to their tendency to development of teratomas.
Great question!
Superman IV : The Quest for Peace.
"Back to Fox: He presumes to speak for those with Parkinson's, but he doesn't speak for me. In the name of politics, he has portrayed himself as a victim. We are victims only if we choose to be.
Michael J. Fox has chosen to be spokes victim for a fraudulent cause."
And that says it all....
You fleshed that out well. You aren't Ann are you?
I suffer from a genetic neurological disease called CMT Type II. I understand how when you are in trouble, that the wrong thing can suddenly become tempting. Very tempting. But that is when you have to stick to your values the most. I hope that Micheal J Fox finds it within himself to be ashamed for letting his sickness drive him into wanting something so wrong. And I hope that he finds the strength to face his affliction with courage and peace.....something that he will never truly be able to do if he is letting it color his values.
Unless Ann is a fat, retired USAF SMSgt, I don't think so!
"Non-stem-cell research has great promise, but it somehow hasn't captured political imaginations. Earlier this year, gene researchers announced a new therapy, using a virus to place a powerful protein into the brain to change its dopamine-production characteristics. The possible benefits for patients with neurological diseases are great.
This therapy could be in clinical trials in three to five years, long before any stem-cell application is identified. (http://www.genome newsnetwork.org/articles/10-00/ Parkinsons-monkeys.shtml)"
This is the very therapy that the Michael J. Fox foundation is providing 1.9 million dollars to support Phase II trials and it's right on the front page of the website both as an article and a press release. From Oct. 17, 2006:
Gene Therapy Trials Show Promise against Parkinson's
Two studies benefit patients without adverse effects, but more tests are needed to be sure
And the press release, October 10, 2006:
Foundation Awards $1.9 Million to Support Ceregene Phase II Gene Therapy Clinical Trial
Funding follows on promising early results of Phase I trial
Shame on Michael Fox indeed! He is not only manipulating his medication to promote a false "promise" for the sake of influencing gullible voters, he is knowingly selling a fraudulent product hoping for political advantage. He was "acting" all right but the role he was playing was that of a HYPOCRITE and a CHARLATAN. He needs to be exposed for doing this and soon!!
There was a thread titled, "Virus, Not Embryo, Can Reverse Parkinson's Disease" exactly 6 years ago, October 28, 2000, about this therapy with an article that was published from the October 27, 2000 issue of Science magazine. Since then they have been working on the Phase I trials which have been very promising. That was the first year that Fox voted in an American election--for Gore of course. Just before the 2000 election, this is what he had to say in an article in the NY Times thanks to a post by LadyDoc:
A Crucial Election for Medical Research By MICHAEL J. FOX
As a Parkinson's disease patient and a new American citizen, I look forward to Election Day as something momentous: It's not just the first presidential race in which I can vote (I was born in Canada). The outcome is likely to have a dramatic bearing on my prognosis — and that of millions of Americans whose lives have been touched by Parkinson's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, spinal cord injury, Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease and other devastating illnesses. That's because one question that may be decided on Tuesday is whether stem cell research — which holds the best hope of a cure for such diseases — will be permitted to go forward.
Campaign aides to George W. Bush, who has not publicly addressed the issue, stated on several occasions that a Bush administration would overturn current National Institutes of Health guideines and ban federal funding for stem cell research. Why? Because the research, which uses human embryos discarded from fertility clinics, has become enmeshed in the politics of abortion. Mr. Bush favors a ban on stem cell research, one aide said, "because of his pro-life views."
Yet stem cell research has nothing to do with abortion. It is not the same as fetal tissue research, the federal funding of which was banned by Presidents Reagan and Bush (but has since been authorized by Congress). Stem cell work uses undifferentiated cells extracted from embryos just a few days old — embryos produced during in vitro fertilization, a process that creates many more fertilized eggs than are implanted in the wombs of women trying to become pregnant. Currently, more than 100,000 embryos are frozen in storage. Most of these microscopic clumps of cells are destined to be destroyed — ending any potential for life.
Their potential for saving lives, however, may be unlimited. Given the proper signal or environment, stem cells, transplanted into human tissue, can be induced to develop into brain, heart, skin, bone marrow cells — indeed, any specialized cells. The scientific research community believes that the transplanted stem cells may be able to regenerate dead or dying human tissue, reversing the progress of disease. According to Cure, a coalition of 28 groups representing patients with cancer, Parkinson's, paralysis and other maladies, "no research in recent history has offered as much hope" for cures.
Support for stem-cell research comes not just from pro-choice Democrats like Al Gore but also from Republicans who have concluded, in the words of former Senator Bob Dole, that supporting such research is "the pro-life position to take."
The list includes Republican senators like Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona, Connie Mack of Florida and Pete Domenici of New Mexico. Even Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon, who the National Right to Life Committee says voted "the right way" on abortion every time last year, supports the research. (let me note: they supported research in the past, before it was known stem cells could be obtained from non fetal tissue)
His family has experience with the ravages of Parkinson's disease, and he has concluded, "Part of my pro-life ethic is to make life better for the living." This is the real compassionate conservatism. One hopes that between now and next Tuesday, Mr. Bush will explain to those of us with debilitating diseases — indeed, to all of us — why it is more pro-life to throw away stem cells than to put them to work saving lives.
Michael J. Fox, the actor, is active in organizations working to combat Parkinson's disease. Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
He's still playing the same tune even though he knows it's
off-key!
As another Freeper said,
MJF should take his sperm, fertilize his wife's eggs, and devour his children's stem cells to cure himself.
Steele should scroll this list at the end of the ad with his sister. That is quite a powerful ad.
Exactly. On TV shows like Spin City, MJF did everything he could to mask his illness in order to not distract from the show. Now, it seems, there are times when he chooses to do the exact opposite - when it serves his personal (political) purposes. Then, it seems he does everything he can in order to (dare I say it?) showcase his illness. In those political ads, MJF and the libs are using his illness as a distraction so that hopefully no one will notice (or at least say outloud) that he's lying through his teeth. I wish MJF absolutely no harm (heck, I'm not even mad at him) - but he has lost my respect. Now he's just another lying, Hollywood liberal trying to manipulate people. Indeed, shame on him.
He was also wealthy enough to afford an operation which is probably out of reach of most people with this disease. It is called thalamotomy which destroys, permanently, the part of the Thalamus that causes involuntary movement of the extremities.
Gives pause of why his political ad shows him about to fall out of his chair because of his thrashing about. Doesn't it?
I'm not saying he was acting but....
LOL!~
You nailed it. I watched my father, a retired Army officer with three wars under his belt fight Parkinsons disease.He died in 86 from cancer. Never did he look like Fox before meds or after them. I have seen many with the disease, but; none were ever as histrionic as Fox was.
bump
QFE
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