Posted by Doug Short on November 30, 1997 at 22:33:58:
In Reply to: Re: CYGNUS TEST RESULTS posted by Alan F. Bachrach, M.D. on November 30, 1997 at 20:05:33:
Dr. Bachrach-
I also understand your point about having a "Plan B", I guess so we won't "put all our eggs in one basket". But "Plan B" seems to have adequate funding already, while "Plan A" has a relatively empty basket.
Having had Type 1 diabetes for 15 years now, and having been an obsessive fanatic regarding the possibilities of "cure" technology for that long (plus having DEVOURED information regarding proposed technologies through the years), I have to, again, emphatically state that, in my opinion, there is some sort of sane reasoning behind the theory of islet cell encapsulation/transplantation that simply makes more sense than anything else I've read about being proposed over the years. It just SEEMS like the answer. I admit that I am no doctor or scientist, but I am a reasonable thinking person, and something about replacing my depleted islet cells with transplanted functioning islets encapsulated to protect them from what made me diabetic in the first place makes all the sense in the world to me. Call it intuition. But it's intuition with rational thought behind it. I understand that you believe in islet encapsulation yourself, and are merely stating that we should have a back-up plan. But the problem is that the back-up plan, as Al Gordon and Marina have said, is liable to get all the attention because it represents the perpetuation of a disease that will, with support from "Plan B", continue to generate lots of money for the diabetic suppliers.
Doug
PS: I thought your sarcasm about the funded study for the "diabetic's dog" was very funny. But the major organizations missed the opportunity for a big chunk of finance by forgetting to fund a study regarding the diabetic's cat.