LETTER: Stem Cells: Fact and Fiction
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Jill Stanek made it very clear that SCNT (somatic cell nuclear transfer) or therapeutic cloning creates ethical
nightmares ["STANEK: It's a mad, mad, mad, mad embryonic kill bill," May 4]. Rayilyn Brown responded ["Pro-life flat
Earth thinkers lack compassion," May 5] by claiming that "the more people know about SCNT, the more likely they are to
support it." If that is true, it is only because the more that they know is composed of misrepresentations and
euphemisms.

There is a web site that claims that SCNT is not cloning. Apparently, supporters of SCNT only consider it cloning if
the clone is allowed to reach the developmental level equivalent to birth. Otherwise, in their view, SCNT only produces
a blastocyst or a few pluripotent cells. The fact that these cells, if allowed to grow, might look like a human being
is unimportant to them. Destroying this blastocyst to harvest its stem cells supports research to cure diseases and
must be allowed to continue. Rayilyn finds it outrageous that someone would consider these "cells, invisible to the
naked eye, a human being."

Such logic denies biological facts. These cells are a human being. If they were not, they would be useless as a source
of stem cells. Once the SCNT process is achieved, the result is equivalent to a fertilized egg. Unless there are health
complications, this organism can only become a human being or be killed.

Rayilyn reveals that she has Parkinson's Disease. She thinks that using SCNT will achieve a cure that will save her
life. Unfortunately, she ignores the much greater potential that exists from using ethical sources of stem cells. Back
in August 2002, a report appeared that a California man’s symptoms of Parkinson’s disease have largely disappeared
after doctors treated him with stem cells from his own brain. Since that time, reports on two attempts to transplant
stem cells derived from fetal tissue into Parkinson's patients have revealed that their conditions became much worse.

The potential to find a cure for Parkinson's Disease is much greater using ethical sources of stem cells from adult
tissue, umbilical cord blood, and placenta. More sources of potential stem cells from adult tissue are being discovered
on a regular basis. If researchers are encouraged to pursue therapeutic cloning, their efforts will be directed to less
likely sources of usable treatments. These researchers should be encouraged to put their efforts into working with stem
cells that have already shown significant promise rather than those that have only led to dead ends and dead embryos.

While Rayilyn criticizes those "non-compassionate anti-abortionists" and "anti-science flat earth thinkers," they
represent the only direction of finding successful treatments for her condition. She can keep fighting for the
ineffective solution if she wants to, but I would recommend that she recheck her facts and begin supporting stem cell
research that offers real promise for eye-opening medical advances without threatening further damage to respect for
human life.

The founders of our nation bestowed civil rights on those cells in the womb, and we have experienced the misfortune of
having that right to life endowed by our Creator dashed by the infamous Roe v. Wade decision. But, what God has
endowed, human beings cannot take away!

Bill Beckman
Executive Director
Illinois Right to Life Committee
Chicago

***************

SOURCE: The Illinois Leader, IL - May 11, 2004
http://www.illinoisleader.com/letters/lettersview.asp?c=14694

* * *

----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn