Media Explosion

In May of 1998 when my son was diagnosed, I had the mother of another child who had been diagnosed years before offer me what she felt was sound, safe advice; "They keep saying that they hope to have a cure within five years but don't you believe it. They were estimating that same five years for a cure over thirteen years ago when my boy was diagnosed and you can see they're not even close..."

I wish I could remember that woman's name because I would love to find out if she's been reading the newspapers or watching the news lately. Just within the last few months there has been an explosion in the field of juvenile diabetes research. Almost every day there is a headline that relates directly or indirectly to the lives affected with type I diabetes.

Within the past several months the media has shouted the news of the Edmonton Protocol to the world as a certain cure for juvenile diabetes. Just last month the BBC reports that doctors at the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School are working to boost the islet cell supplies by taking pancreatic duct cells and encouraging them to grow into islet cells.

Within the past week the National Institute of Health released guidelines to permit human embryos to be used for stem cell research while the business news simultaneously carried the news that the stock for stem cell research companies has begun to climb. A quick search on a news site such as Bloomberg.com will pull up the latest headlines.

One cannot help but feel that something major is about to break. Juvenile diabetes, a possible cure, and even the race for plentiful islet cell supplies are making headlines. It's a breathtaking, dizzying time for us all that have wanted nothing less than a cure for our loved ones and ourselves for so many years. Sometimes the stories break so fast that we catch ourselves trying to get our breath as we try to decipher what it means for us personally.

Just as soon as the NIH guidelines have been established the Vatican has come out to publicly condemn using human embryos for stem cell research preferring instead that adult cells be coaxed and used for research. Individuals such as myself begin to question how they 'really' feel about the thought that maybe the cure lies within the tissue of an embryo and all the moral issues that are raised.

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