[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 131 (Friday, September 26, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S10094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       RIGHT TO LIFE OF MICHIGAN

 Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise today to honor those of 
Right to Life of Livingston County, Inc. and Right to Life of Michigan 
for their enduring commitment and dedication to one of today's most 
important social issues.
  Mr. President, to those of us who are pro-life, being pro-life means 
protecting our families and respecting the sanctity of life. It also 
means maintaining the central role of the family in all our lives. I 
would like to take this opportunity to thank those of Right to Life of 
Michigan for their perseverance in support of those goals. 
Unfortunately, we still must spend much of our time in the political 
sphere, arguing against laws that promote the taking of unborn human 
lives, and I am grateful for all their efforts in that area as well.
  Ending the tragedy of abortion will not be easy. But groups like 
Right to Life of Livingston County, National Right to Life of Michigan, 
and the National Right to Life Committee, are fighting a winning 
battle. By their example, as well as their arguments, they are showing 
the power and the beauty of human life.
 Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, retinal degenerative diseases affect 
more than six million Americans. This number is expected to climb 
beyond 10 million as the baby boomers age. This is a vision timebomb 
and I have witnessed its devastating impact on many of our senior 
citizens. September 27, 1997 marks World Retina Day, a day in which 
organizations around the world dedicated to finding the cures for 
retinal degenerative diseases join together to call attention to the 
collaborative research that is being done internationally.
  The most common retinal disease is age-related macular degeneration 
(AMD) which is the leading cause of vision loss in adults over the age 
of 60. Individuals with AMD not only lose their central vision, but 
also their ability to read, drive and in many cases they lose their 
sense of independence. Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) is a genetic disease 
that steals the sight of the young, robbing them in the prime of their 
life, their night vision and then their peripheral vision. RP is a 
progressive disease, leading in most cases to blindness. There is no 
treatment to stop the progression of this disease. Usher's Syndrome is 
also a genetic disease and it is the leading cause of deaf-blindness in 
the United States. This again shows up in our young, robbing them of 
vision and hearing. The suffering to the patients and their families is 
incalculable.
  Due to the work funded by the National Eye Institute at the National 
Institute of Health, and organizations such as the Foundation Fighting 
Blindness and similar organizations worldwide, significant progress in 
research has been made. Just this past week a stunning research 
breakthrough was announced. Scientists have discovered gene mutations 
that cause AMD. This landmark finding offers the first concrete 
evidence that AMD is genetically linked. There is now hope that by the 
time the generation of the baby boomers reaches age 60, in about 10 
years, that there will be a genetic treatment for AMD. If a treatment 
is found, we will see a return on our investments in eye research, and 
the savings to the budget in terms of health care costs will be 
significant.
  With the international collaboration among researchers who represent 
a broad spectrum of highly specialized scientific disciplines, great 
strides have been made in understanding AMD, RP, Usher's syndrome and 
related retinal degenerative diseases. International breakthroughs and 
collaboration in research warrant the recognition of World Retina Day. 
I am hopeful that there is a cure in sight. I believe that as we 
continue to fund medical research, diseases such as these will become 
eradicated and remembered only in the archives of medical 
history.

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