This is all wonderful news. I just wanted to say that I just got home from Israel and my husband and I went to the most amazing town called Amirim. Everyone who lives there is vegetarian/vegan and there are over 150 families now. It is truly the most amazing place ever. There is such a feeling of peace and calm, you just can feel that no animals are killed there and that hearts of the citizens are pure. There is an amazing vegan spa there which we will be staying at next time we go to Israel.

I heard about Dr. Burzynski in the mid 90s when 2 of my husband's coworkers had a 3 month old baby with an inoperable brain tumor. She was given 3 months to live so the FDA granted them permission to go to Dr. Burzynski and my husband's company held a fundraiser for the medical bills. She is now 12 years old and healthy with no sign of cancer. She is one of the patients whose story is on Dr. Burzynski's site (her name is Tory is you want to read her story on the site).

I can appreciate what you're saying, Cliff, and the caveat to all of us who have biases in any direction is to look at the facts and evaluate them free of our prejudices and emotional inclinations. From what I have read about this situation, it appears to me that the FDA has behaved dishonorably.

There are two issues here -- the trustworthiness of big government/big business fascism, and the best way to heal. I take it that the video is one more piece of the everlasting stream of evidence that big government control, in collusion with the medical/industrial establishment, is a disaster. Do we really need to have that demonstrated again? Dictatorships, even when implemented with patronizing good intentions, create immense suffering and injustice. Let freedom ring!

However, the second issue is also important. How shall we understand healing? For the last century, medicine has developed a very impressive set of technologies for dealing with disorders that are a function of a more or less separable PART of the whole physiological/psychological person. However, we are running into increasing difficulties with those disorders that involve the person as a whole -- these emerge quite noticeably in the so-called degenerative disorders that absorb most of the modern health care costs. I take it that the great healers of cancer an other such disorders have generally not attempted to introduce another medical technique, but have attempted to create a systemic environment in which the body's natural restorative and self-healing capacities are liberated to do their own amazing work. Of course, this approach requires the responsible action of the client (I do not use the term patient, as it has come to be associated the irresponsibility of sick persons to participate in their own healing).

This is why, if I had cancer, I would probably not consider Burzynski's approach. It might work in certain circumstances. In the absence of more research, who really knows? But we all know that the body possesses remarkable mechanisms of self-healing. Moreover, diet -- especially a whole food plant based diet -- is key to promoting those capacities. So, after I have had my carrot juice, please pass the broccoli and brown rice, thanks.

jm