Codey's bold plan would invest $150 million toward construction of the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey, a one-of-a-kind facility in New Brunswick that would immediately make New Jersey one of the premier locations for scientific discovery in the world. In addition, his plan calls for voters to approve $230 million more in state bonds for advancing stem cell research and technology in New Jersey. Perhaps more important, Codey's proposal would provide millions of Americans, whose lives may depend on the scientific breakthroughs stem cell research offers, with something money can never buy: hope. Now New Jersey has a chance to offer even more hope to those like my son, Jacob, who are suffering from a host of deadly diseases, including Parkinson's, diabetes and cancer.

Initiatives like these are what fuel me in my effort to keep my son alive. I was told by Jacob's doctor that he would die in his first decade of life from Canavan disease, a rare neurological genetic disease for which there is no cure. Because of an enzyme deficiency, the white matter in the brains of Canavan children is devastatingly affected. The children cannot sit, crawl, walk or say a single word. Eventually they go blind, develop seizures, lose their ability to swallow and become too weak to fight off illness. Death soon follows.

I have chosen not to accept this death sentence. Instead, I founded Jacob's Cure to increase awareness and find a cure for Canavan through aggressive fund-raising, lobbying and education. Since 1994, we have raised almost $2.5 million for research, gene therapy, the creation of animal models, and approaches in pharmacological, enzymatic and especially neural stem cell transplantation. Much more still has to be done.

For years, however, politics seems to have gotten in the way of progress. Despite the support of three former presidents, more than 260 members of Congress on both sides of the political spectrum, 48 Nobel laureates and millions of citizens who agree that stem cell research holds great promise, President Bush - under increasing pressure from competing constituencies - compromised to the detriment of the research community.

In August 2001, he announced that research on the existing stem cell lines would receive financing from the National Institutes of Health, but no new lines could be created with government money. This decision severely limited the resources available to scientists and doctors. As too often is the case, special interest groups were deeply involved in the debate, clouding for many a process that merits a sincere and honest exchange of ideas.

Initially, the re-election of Bush and the further rightward shift of Congress marked a sad day for advocates of stem cell research. But the voters of California changed the mood, and now New Jersey may soon follow suit to push this movement forward. These two states can together take control of one of the most hotly contested political topics in this country. To ignore this movement is to ignore the voices that too often are silenced by the devastating illnesses that affect them. While California brightened the flickering light at the end of the tunnel for all of us, New Jersey can now make it shine even more brightly.

We are doing a great injustice to our loved ones and our future if we allow ourselves to be scared off by the unknown. Imagine what our world would be like if Alexander Fleming, John Sheehan and Andrew Moyer had not invented penicillin. Today, illnesses such as pneumonia, strep throat, meningitis and rheumatic fever are easily treated, but in the days before this miracle drug they developed, thousands of children died each year from these diseases.

Stem cells hold the promise of being the penicillin of the 21st century. Indeed, a team of researchers at Cooper Hospital and Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center in New Jersey, headed by Paola Leone, already has found data suggesting that stem cells have reversed the effects in demyelinated animals and have had an even greater impact when injected in the brains of animals already treated with the same gene therapy as the Canavan children. Leone and other scientists in New Jersey already are taking major steps forward. Their work offers us a glimpse at the possibilities and cures to which sufficient funding could lead. This gives me and all of us at Jacob's Cure great hope.

This hope is something the New Jersey Legislature should invest in today. Its willingness to support and fully fund stem cell research may make it possible for me to one day see my son talk and walk and live the life he so deserves and wants to live. It will allow the same dream of a brighter day to live inside the minds of countless people facing these deadly diseases and in those who care for them. We must fight for that day.