Thanks for the interesting site, Joan. it will take some study as I can't
see well and my windows don't open wide enough for all the text of the
debate.
ray
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joan Snyder" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2005 9:06 AM
Subject: Re: Ayn Rand Institue fellolw on "rights"


> dear rayilynlee:
> thank you so very much for posting such a wonderfully written, well
> thought out & extra-ordinarily sensitive essay about embryonic stem cell
> research. it is time, i feel, that these kinds of rational, yet
> easy-to-understand and easy-to-relate-to type of stories are used to
> promote our agenda. we have tried with the scientific reasoning but now
> i think the time has come to use to thoughtful, passionate and
> intelligent responses to our critics. you are right, also....joan of arc
> was burned alive onm May 30, 1431; retried in 1456 and acquitted; but it
> was not until April 11, 1905 that she was Beatified by Pope Saint Pius X
> and not Canonized a saint until May 16th, 1920 by Pope Benedict XV. All
> of this shows that the Church, while being so large and incredibly
> slow-moving and resistant to change have, in fact mountains of material
> to sift through and digest and consider before they will change even the
> profound injustices found in the treatment of St. Joan (go to:
> http://maidjoan.tripod.com/ for an essay by the Saint Joan of Arc
> Anti-Defamation League entitled: MYTHS AND DISTORTIONS ABOUT JOAN OF
> ARC), the church's ethical and religious bigotry against those of the
> Jewish faith and the horrific facts about priests who are/were capable
> of such monsorous sexual perversions against young children and
> adolecences. while i in no way seek to justify the actions or in many
> cases the lack of action of the Church, i can begin to understand why
> the wheels of justice turn so slowly and help me to realize that while i
> was born a Catholic, it is my religion of choice also. i would also like
> to thank Mary Ann Ryan for her gentle words of support and understanding.
> i still agree with the essay that i wrote 3 yrs ago:
>
>
> now i must thank my support team which consisted of Dr. R. Rajaraman, a
> retired professor specializing in cell and molecular biology of
> cancer-living in Nova Scotia , Canada; Dr. Raymond Barglow, Ph.D, who
> studies and write about bioethics, and lives in Berkeley California and
> Dr. K. F. Etzold, Ph.D, who's degree is in physics. it was with the help
> of these three men that i have come to see the flaws in my first piece.
> Dr. Rajaraman went on to work up his own 10 page thesies on the subject
> and i didn't feel that in any way, my name belonged on his masterpiece.
> i think that his work stands on it's own.
>
> /however, i have taken to mind the considerations put forward by Drs.
> Barglow and Etzold, and we have come up with a shorter, more impassioned
> plea for understanding...for finding a common ground amidst this
> unsavory battle. So here, with a little help from my friends is our
> final copy of my original piece:
>
> _Stem Cells and Cloning -- The Science behind the Rhetoric_
>
>
> Out there on the political battlefield of stem celll research, sides
> have been taken,
> many round fired, and casualties sustained by both sides. So much smoke
> fills the air that it's almost impossible to think straight. The cause
> of the confusion is often language: words as powerful as flamethrowers
> ignite fierce reactions from both sides.
>
>
> I am Joan Snyder. Many of you know me as a wife and mom and a
> parishioner at St. Edward Catholic Church in Chillicothe, Illinois//.
> Others know me as a 51 year old woman who has been diagnosed with
> Parkinson's Disease for 13 years, who is an advocate and fundraiser on
> behalf of people with this condition. And those who know me well have
> seen for years now that I walk a moral tightrope regarding the
> controversial ethical problems that have challenged not only people with
> my disease, but also those with Alzheimer's (which killed my father),
> juvenile diabetes, ALS, spinal chord injury, stroke, heart disease, and
> other devastating conditions that could possibly be cured through stem
> cell research, including so-called "therapeutic cloning."
>
> I am hopeful that medical research will provide us with new remedies
> whose approval will require neither that I compromise my Catholic
> Pro-Life beliefs, nor that I turn my back on the many thousands of
> fellow PWP's (people with Parkinson's). I have gotten to know a good
> number of them, both in person and on the web -and as if looking into a
> mirror, I've seen their slow, downward pantomime. And I've also learned
> about some of the complexities of this research, and about the
> confusions that cloud the essential scientific and ethical issues.
>
> I'd like to begin by noting that there are some quite thoughtful,
> anti-abortion Christians - including people like Nancy Reagan and
> Senators Orrin Hatch and Strom Thurmond - who strongly support
> therapeutic cloning research. Some Catholic Theologians, such as Thomas
> Shannon, also support this research. Let's examine the issue, and see if
> we can understand why.
>
>
> Here are definitions of some of the scary words out there:
>
> _STEM CELLS_ --Undifferentiated, primitive cells with the ability to
> reproduce themselves and to differentiate into specific kinds of cells.
> If we - or, I should say, the scientists among us -- can understand
> better how stem cells grow and specialize - then we can use them to
> treat injuries and diseases. There are different types of stem cells and
> different ways of generating and gathering them.
>
> _BIOMEDICAL CLONING _-- Cloning is a quite general term in biology that
> denotes the creation of multiple, identical copies of a cell. There are
> many types of cloning, some of which are now commonplace in biomedicine.
> Cloning has allowed scientists to develop powerful new drugs and to
> produce insulin and useful bacteria in the lab. It is one among several
> new genetic tools that allow researchers to track the origins of
> biological weapons, identify criminals, and produce foods more
> efficiently. Some of these scientific applications are rightly
> controversial, but what I've discovered is that so-called "therapeutic
> cloning," in particular, is entirely safe and ethical…but more about
> that below.
>
> _REPRODUCTIVE CLONING_ - This is the use of cloning technology to create
> a child. It aims to take cells from a person (or sheep, creating Dolly)
> and use them to create a genetically identical organism. I find the
> concept of human reproductive cloning abhorrent and immoral. I think
> that this kind of research should be banned right away.
>
> _THERAPEUTIC CLONING_ (technically known as _SOMATIC CELL NUCLEAR
> TRANSFER, or_ _SCNT)_ --This involves removing the nucleus of an
> unfertilized egg cell, and replacing it with the nucleus of a "somatic
> cell" (for example, an adult skin, heart, or nerve cell) and stimulating
> this cell to divide. Once the cell begins dividing, stem cells can be
> extracted
> within one week and used for research. The SCNT cell remains in a
> laboratory on a Petri dish, and the process does _NOT_ involve sperm at
> all, does _NOT_ use a fertilized egg, and does _NOT_ produce an embryo
> to be implanted in a woman's uterus.
>
> The words "stem cell" sometimes evoke an explosive reaction in people on
> both sides of the abortion issue. The fact is that stem cells are in our
> own blood, brains, and other parts of our bodies. Scientists think that
> with further research, these adult stem cells may help us cure disease
> like Parkinson's, juvenile diabetes and many other diseases ... but no
> one knows for sure. There is the research being conducted right here in
> Peoria by Dr. Rick Weber who is an Associate Professor of
> Immunopharmacology and Microbiology here at the University of Illinois
> College of Medicine, who is working on stem cell research that uses a
> patient's own white blood cells to help cure that patient.
>
> There are also stem cells that can be harvested from umbilical cord
> blood that is routinely discarded after a baby is born. Around the
> nation, cord blood banks are being set up to help doctors and families
> donate their umbilical cord for research.
>
> We would all favor this humane stem cell research, if we understand it.
> The problem lies in the very mention of the words "stem cells." People
> tend to forget that there are many kinds of stem cells that scientists
> work with. "Embryonic stem cells" are the flashpoint that ignites both
> sides of the abortion issue. Sometimes these are harvested from
> "leftover" embryos that are created by a couple using in-vitro
> fertilization. These embryos are routinely destroyed by clinics and
> hospitals each day. Should they be discarded in this way? It is at this
> point that clouds of uncertainty obscure our vision and raise serious
> questions:
>
> Which is more pro-life: to destroy these embryos, which will never
> become children because they are not transplanted into a woman's womb?
> Or to give these embryos value by using them to advance life-saving
> research? I have to admit that I don't how to handle this ethical hot
> potato. But I can tell you that over the years, watching this disease
> take my life and the lives of my friends away little by little,
> sometimes makes me deeply question my own beliefs. So, this brings us
> back to the issue of cloning. The key to
> understanding the issue lies in the distinction between reproductive
> cloning -- which should be banned immediately -- and life-saving,
> therapeutic cloning. Therapeutic cloning is entirely moral, in agreement
> with the fundamental values of all of the major religions, and offers
> great promise for curing terrible, fatal diseases that affect young and
> old people alike. Therapeutic cloning will save lives; it cannot create
> them.
>
> I hope that I have helped to clear up some of the misconceptions about
> cloning, and to find common ground where pro-life and the pro-choice
> people can come together in a united effort to heal the devastation and
> suffering of so many.
> /
>
> now i must thank my support team which consisted of Dr. R. Rajaraman, a
> retired professor specializing in cell and molecular biology of
> cancer-fron Nova Scotia, Canada. Dr. Rajaraman went on to work up his
> own 10 page thesies on the subject and i didn't feel that in any way, my
> name belonged on his masterpiece. i think that his work stands on it's
> own.
>
> /
>
>
>
>
> -- /
>
> / /
>
>
> Joan Blessington Snyder   54/14
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.pwnkle.com/jes/jes_web/index.htm
> “Hang tough……..no way through it but to do it.”
> Chris in the Morning      Northern Exposure
>
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