[commish]

ALS is one of the most horrible ways to go. To have to sit there and watch your body basically disintigrate around you.

[CarmelValleyite]

Agreed -- I worked for the ALS Association here in an L.A. suburb some years back. It was by far the saddest environment I've ever worked in -- people or their relatives, newly diagnosed, called in frequently for advice on everything imaginable.

Staffers were often in tears from the stories, but I'm glad I did my stint there -- I agree that ALS is about the worst disease one can be diagnosed with, along with inoperable cancer and rapid progression MS (no remissions, all downhill).

A friend's father got it at 64 and was dead within a year. That friend lives every day in fear that he may have inherited that "gene." Very sad...