Reeve Was a Hero in the Fight for Stem-Cell Advances
Advances in stem-cell research probably wouldn’t have come fast enough to save Christopher Reeve (obituary, Oct. 11). But I’m angry that he never lived to see a sensible federal stem-cell policy.
Unfortunately, President Bush caved in to the religious right when he banned federally funded research on new stem-cell lines. In contrast, Reeve courageously stood up for all of us.
Bruce Forkush
Sherman Oaks
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Reeve set a standard of courage and endurance at which the rest of us can only gaze in wonder.
Who among us would be able to continue as he did after losing so much, and with such dignity?
Bart Braverman
Los Angeles
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I heard the news and I, a 48-year-old man, cried. I cried not because another good actor had died. I cried because of what we as a people have lost with his passing -- the strength, honesty, faith and hope he inspired in all of us.
Too often we call others heroes, perhaps because they scored a winning point or goal or survived some medical crisis that killed others.
They were good athletes, or lucky survivors. Reeve was a hero. He took what life had dealt him and he turned it into a cause that may help millions of other people, even though he did not survive long enough for it to help him.
Somewhere in a petri dish in an underfunded laboratory is the hope that could have saved this man. Somewhere a scientist grows closer to a cure for the damage to Reeve’s spine. And somewhere someone pressures a legislator with a heart to vote against science.
This is not a game, people. This is not about left or right. This is about progress or a return to the Dark Ages.
Mr. Reeve, you touched my heart and, even more important, you touched where I live inside myself.
Randy Snyder
Los Angeles
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What was the kryptonite that ultimately killed “Superman” Reeve? It was the right-wing Christians who have blocked research into stem-cell research.
As a paraplegic for 28 years, I never thought a cure was imminent, but at least Reeve gave the half-million Americans surviving with spinal cord injury something to hope for.
That’s GOP compassion for you ... social Darwinism.
God bless this brave spokesman.
John M. Poirier
Bellingham, Wash.
