Reeve's stem-cell legacy
نویسنده
چکیده
The death last month of Superman actor Christopher Reeve, aged 52, attracted enormous media coverage. While his fame originally lay with his acting, his efforts in support of stem-cell research since the horse-riding accident in 1995 that left him quadraplegic have deeply affected friends and commentators. Reeve became a vocal advocate for this research field. In stem cells, he saw a powerful tool being hampered by US policy, a tool that promised potential therapies, not just to heal himself, but to treat a host of medical conditions in others. The Los Angeles Times highlighted his role in the campaign last month of the (then) presidential candidate Democrat John Kerry, reporting Kerry as saying in one of the televised presidential debates “that he believed embryonic stem cell research should be expanded, saying it would be the best way to give Reeve and others like him the chance for a better life.” The New York Times reported comments by Sean Tipton, a spokesperson for the coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, an umbrella group of organisations dedicated to the promotion of stem-cell studies. “He has been such an inspiration to us personally that those of us involved in stem cell advocacy are going to have to figure out how we are going to continue without his leadership, and without his very visible presence.” The paper also reported the comment from Larry Soler, a spokesperson for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which does not endorse political candidates, who said that Reeve’s death was “an important reminder to us that time is of the essence with this research.” And Reeve made a difference. He campaigned in Congress. He was the public figure that brought the stem-cell debate to the public. “He was the human voice that changed attitudes,” says Colin Feature
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ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Current Biology
دوره 14 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2004