Most of you have probably heard about the campaign ad that Michael J. Fox did for politicians recently. He doesn’t say whether or not he stopped taking his medication before doing the commercial, however, in 1999, at a Senate subcommittee in Washington, he made a “deliberate choice to appear before the subcommittee without medication”, according to his book, Lucky Man. I am sure that he is probably doing what he thinks is right, based on his position as a well known public figure and a Parkinson’s patient. However, I am deeply saddened by his decision to use his situation to promote ES cell research when his own disease is being treated using gene therapy and AS cells, and may never be treated with ES cells.

This, folks, is why I have tried to put myself out there in this particular debate, besides the desire to defend human life. I am sick of seeing diseases and disabilities like mine exploited in order to advance research that destroys nascent human life and now to politicize sickness and disease.