"Cancer Treatment: New Directions for the 1990s," was a major conference,
held on 9/20/93 to 9/21/93 by Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari
and his daughter, Rep. Susan Molinari (R-NY). This conference marked another
effort on behalf of freedom of choice by the former U.S. Congressman. At
one time, videotapes of the conference were available by calling
718-816-2147.
Below are excerpts from Pres. Guy Molinari's speech:
"People should be able to learn about new treatments, new means of slowing,
stopping, or preventing cancer. As for myself, my involvement in this issues,
which has sometimes been misunderstood, rests on a purely humanitarian level.
I am simply seeking to support a process that allows scientific studies to
be conducted on the most promising therapies, whether they are initiated
by so-called mainstream, or alternative, researchers.
"I have sometimes been described as an advocate of alternative therapies.
That I am not.
"I am, however, a strong advocate of encouraging the medical and scientific
communities to study therapies that will help us in the fight against cancer;
to extend the lives of cancer patients, as well as raise the quality of their
lives. If ever I have second thoughts about continuing my involvement in
cancer treatment, I think back to a number of events which gave me the sense
that we are moving in the right direction.
The first revolves around my visit to the board of the New York Medical Society
in 1986. I asked to speak before the board in order to pose some questions
about the Burton [Immuno-Augmentative Therapy] clinic.
It was my hope to gain their professional recommendations on how to initiate
a scientific protocol for studying the therapy. Though the board's public
opinion was to declare that there was nothing substantive to the Burton therapy,
some of the physicians privately advised me to continue in my line of inquiry
because they thought that Burton may have been onto something"
