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Orvieto-Brussels, February 2001
Dear Professor,
I am writing to you,
and to many other distinguished scientists, to invite
you to take part in a common battle. My name is Luca
Coscioni. I have a degree in Economics and an MA in
environmental economics. I have taught Economic Policy
at the University of Viterbo.
I am directly involved
in the battle for the freedom of science and of therapy,
with regard in particular to research into embryonic
staminal cells. Such research is currently prohibited
in Italy, just as hope is prohibited for the millions
of people suffering from serious, widespread diseases
for which there is currently no effective cure.
If you could meet me,
you would not be able to hear my voice. Five years ago
I was struck by amiotrophic lateral sclerosis, an incurable
neuromuscular disease which makes those who suffer from
it paralytic and unable to speak with their own voice.
In order to communicate I use a computer with a voice
synthesis programme, the system used by the famous English
physicist Steven Hawking, who suffers from the same
disease.
Amiotrophic lateral
sclerosis, which strikes one in 10,000 people, is best
avoided, to say the least. Unfortunately, however, we
still do not know the causes that bring it about, which
means that it is impossible to predict who will be affected
and why. For 2001 all we know is that there will be
several hundred new cases of amiotrophic lateral sclerosis
in Italy, and a total of several thousand Italians,
give or take one or two, will be battling against the
disease.
There is, however,
a possibility that amiotrophic lateral sclerosis could
be cured with the use of staminal cells. Scientific
research will tell us if and how. In Italy, this possibility
unfortunately seems to be denied to the thousands of
people who, like me, fight for survival every day. Why?
Because of the interference of the Catholic Church,
which is, as everyone knows, opposed to therapeutic
cloning and to the use of surplus embryos for the purposes
of research. Embryos, that is, which are in any case
destined to be disposed of, and which could, if they
were used, save the lives of millions of people. According
to the Dulbecco Report on staminal cells, which contains
the recommendations of the 25 experts appointed by the
Minister of Health to examine the issue, 10 million
Italians could be treated with therapies based on these
cells. People suffering from a range of diseases, including
Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amiotrophic
lateral sclerosis, spinal muscular atrophy, traumatic
lesions to the spinal marrow, muscular dystrophy, tumours
and leukaemia, diabetes, heart attacks and strokes.
People who continue to suffer as they anxiously await
a law on therapeutic cloning.
While the United States
and Great Britain approved therapeutic cloning six months
ago, in Italy we are still discussing whether it is
ethical or not to use frozen embryos close to their
deadline for use, if not already unusable. They can
be destroyed, it seems, without causing any scandal,
but they cannot be put to good use for research. And
thus, while experimentation will begin next spring in
the United States and Great Britain, in the form of
pre-clinical studies, Italy will be enveloped by the
fog of demonisation and disinformation. And in this
thick fog it will not be difficult for the government
and the majority to continue to ban therapeutic cloning,
among other things, thus denying hundreds of thousands
of Italians a concrete hope of finding a cure, or forcing
them to travel to other countries in a shameful form
of "health tourism".
In the face of this
disastrous scenario, it is absolutely necessary to be
present in Parliament. The Lista Bonino has drawn up
a people's bill (of which I am honoured to be the first
signatory) containing laws on the subject of medically
assisted procreation and research on human embryos.
Fighting year after
year, month after month, day after day, hour after hour
against the disease that has struck me has not given
my life a meaning. Diseases, and the suffering they
bring, never have any meaning. I am giving meaning to
my life by myself, by living it, as I am allowed to
live it. By loving, hating, and being involved in politics,
which is one of my passions.
This is why I have
decided to stand in the general election, together with
Emma Bonino, in the electoral list that bears her name,
to give a concrete form to the fight to defend the freedom
of scientific research, the freedom to choose one's
treatment, the freedom to choose how and when to die,
in the case of incurable diseases marked by unbearable
suffering and pain.
In the civilised, advanced
world, debate is born and develops around ideas. In
Italy, on the other hand, debate is impossible, and
prohibition is the order of the day.
I am appealing to you, Nobel Prize winners and scientists,
to ask for your support for a cause which is mine, but
which is also and above all yours. I am a concrete example
of how the right to life and the freedom of science
are one and the same thing. If Italy continues to be
the victim of anti-scientific obscurantism, millions
of people like me will continue to be condemned by the
irresponsibility of politicians, as well as by the gravity
of their diseases.
For this reason I would
ask you to send me a message of support for this battle
and for this appeal against the attack on the freedom
of scientific research and practice, in particular against
the prohibition of experimentation with embryos and
of therapeutic cloning.
I would like to take
this opportunity to thank you, all of you, and also
to express my thanks to Science, which is Knowledge.
To Science, which is also Information Technology, thanks
to which the wide sea of knowledge and ignorance, of
despair and hope, of love and hate, which dwells inside
me, which is me, and which would otherwise have been
compelled to silence, enclosed in the narrow space of
a bottle, can flow, however slowly, towards you all.
Luca Coscioni
lucacoscioni@visto.com
Fax. +32-2-284.91.98 - +32-2-284.91.20 - +32-2-230.36.70
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