MOORE asks for more funding for diabetes research

<br>WASHINGTON (AP) _ Actress Mary Tyler Moore called on Congress Tuesday to increase funding for diabetes research and support embryonic stem cell research, which she called ``truly life affirming.''

Tuesday, June 26th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Actress Mary Tyler Moore called on Congress Tuesday to increase funding for diabetes research and support embryonic stem cell research, which she called ``truly life affirming.''

``It is the true pinnacle of charity to give life to another,'' she told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. ``Federal support for stem cell research is an extension of this affirmation of life and is the best way to ensure it is undertaken with the highest of ethical standards.''

Actors Kevin Kline and Jonathan Lipnicki and former astronaut James Lovell, commander of Apollo 13, also testified.

About 200 children with diabetes and their families, in town for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International Children's Congress 2001, filled the hearing room.

``It is these children we must admire,'' Kline said. ``Their honesty and bravery are models for us all. Their stories and their role here today _ advocating for their cure, their own future _ must be heard.''

``Diabetes is an all-too-personal time bomb which can go off today, tomorrow, next year, or 10 years from now _ a time bomb affecting millions like me and the children here today,'' said Moore, who has suffered from juvenile diabetes for more than 30 years.

Almost 16 million Americans have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.