Hope, Despair and Stem Cell Research

Re “A desperate injection of stem cells and hope,” Feb. 20: Kudos to Alan Zarembo for a masterful article about two scientifically uneducated people trying to profit from a new technology (stem cell research) they couldn’t understand. Medical quackery still exists. The article also gives voice to the feelings of hopelessness that some experience when faced with chronic untreatable, or eventually lethal, diseases. Would that we all had the grace of Lou Gehrig, or the quiet courage of so many others in the face of bad medical news.

John L. Seymour MD

Rancho Mirage

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So, after being a Republican for 25 years, Tom Hill renounced his membership when he realized that the party’s Neanderthal policies restricting stem cell research were limiting research into curing his ALS.

Why is it that most people never understand the anti-people philosophy of the Republican Party until they experience it personally? This reminds me of the sad woman in “Fahrenheit 9/11” who supported the immoral, illegal, unjustified war in Iraq until her son was killed there.

Bob Lentz

Sylmar