Yahoo! News Story - Crippled 'Superman' Reeve Blames Church and Bush

September 18, 2002

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Hi all,Another Reeve story.Bill Werre

Crippled 'Superman' Reeve Blames Church and Bush

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020917/en_nm/health_superman_dc_3

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Crippled 'Superman' Reeve Blames Church and Bush

Tue Sep 17,12:16 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) -

Reeve, the Hollywood star

paralyzed from the neck down, said Tuesday the Catholic church

and President Bush (

news -

web sites) had obstructed research that might free him

from his wheelchair.

Reuters Photo

AP Photo

Slideshow: Reeve

The actor, who found film fame as "Superman," told

Britain's Guardian newspaper the Bush Administration had caved

in on the issue of embroyonic stem cell research after the

Catholic church expressed opposition to cloning.

"If we'd had full government support, full government

funding for aggressive research using embryonic stem cells from

the moment they were first isolated, at the University of

Wisconsin in the winter of 1998 -- I don't think it

unreasonable to speculate that we might be in human trials by

now."

Reeve, paralyzed seven years ago when he was thrown from

his horse, said he was "angry and disappointed" that Bush had

hampered developments in stem cell research that might have led

to human trials aimed at rebuilding the nervous systems of

quadriplegics.

"I think we could have been much further along with

scientific research than we actually are," he said.

The actor said President Bush had paid too much heed to the

Catholic church.

"There are religious groups -- the Jehovah's Witness, I

believe -- who think it's a sin to have a blood transfusion.

Well, what if the president for some reason decided to listen

to them, instead of to the Catholics, which is the group he

really listens to in making his decisions about embryonic stem

cell research?" Reeve was quoted as saying.

Reeve is supporting a bill that would support therapeutic

cloning while punishing those who carried out reproductive

cloning.

The actor, who has round-the-clock medical care that costs

him $417,000 a year, once said he wanted to be on his feet by

the time he was 50 -- a birthday just eight days away.

"It's defeatist to harp on what might have been, and yet,

it's hard to resist considering what might have been," he said.

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