Reeve: Politics delaying spinal-injury research
'We're about five years behind,' paralyzed actor, activist says
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Christopher Reeve
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In an excerpt from his first interview without a ventilator, actor Christopher Reeve tells CNN's Paula Zahn that politics is holding up spinal research.
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HEALTH LIBRARY
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BEDFORD, New York (CNN) -- The actor who played Superman before a horseback-riding accident eight years ago left him paralyzed from the neck down is blaming political sensitivity over stem cell research for holding back by years the study of spinal cord injuries, even as he credited other kinds of research with helping him breathe without the aid of a ventilator.
"I think we're about five years behind where we could have been in this country because of controversy over kinds of research, particularly stem cell research," actor and director Christopher Reeve said on CNN's "Paula Zahn Now" during an interview at his home in Bedford.
Stem cells, taken from embryos, can develop into any type of body tissue. A number of scientists consider the cells to be critical to possible breakthroughs in the treatment of spinal cord injuries.
President Bush has opposed the use of human embryos in medical research. Two years ago, the federal government severely limited the use of public funds for such work.
Asked when he thinks he will be able to walk again, the 51-year-old Reeve acknowledged that he had once predicted he would be walking by 50.
"Well, we missed that," he said.
Regaining his ability to walk, he said in an interview to be broadcast Friday, "is going to depend on politics, on money, on popular support, on our willingness to take reasonable risks. In the next three to five years."
Even so, the actor-turned-activist said he has benefited from cutting-edge medical research, most recently an experimental pacemaker implanted in his diaphragm that has enabled him to speak without being tethered to a respirator.
"It's freedom from the hose; you know, that necktie I've been wearing for eight years," he said in speech that sounded more conversational than in previous interviews.
The diaphragm pacing system consists of electrodes in Reeve's diaphragm muscle and attached by wires running under the skin to a small external battery pack, according to the University Hospitals of Cleveland, where the operation was performed. Electricity running from the batteries to the diaphragm stimulates the muscles and nerves, causing muscles to contract and allowing air to enter the lungs.
Although the device -- which is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration -- has "a lot of bugs," he said, "It really feels like progress."
Those bugs include the ever-present danger that the device's electrodes or batteries will fail. Getting used to using it has also been a challenge, he said.
"I had a couple of fun times. I choked a couple of times because, breathing and eating, I had to relearn how to do both."
Reeve said his activism on behalf of people with spinal cord injuries has served as a lightning rod for "the entire religious right, a lot of social conservatives, probably a lot of scientists."
But, he said, all he wanted to do was inject them with a sense of urgency.
"We're not asking them to do things that are irresponsible," he said. "Think about people that are suffering."
