Leaving Research

Sometimes people ask me how it is that I could walk away from a career of 20+ years as a scientist, most of them spent investigating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; Lou Gehrig’s disease). Sometimes I give a trite answer about changing careers a few times in one’s life or simply moving on to new things that interest me. These are true answers but not the complete truth.

The crux of the issue was the sadness and futility such as that caused to this family: Man’s suicide death to be shown on TV. While this is OK in Europe at this time, this is what Jack Kevorkian went to jail for in the US back in the late 1990’s.