August 1, 2004 <IMG SRC="http://www.latimes.com/images/icons/email_icon.gif" WIDTH="12" HEIGHT="12" BORDER="0" DATASIZE="152"> <A HREF="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-stem1aug01,1,6564286,email.story?coll=la-news-comment-letters">E-mail story</A> <IMG SRC="http://www.latimes.com/images/icons/print_icon.gif" WIDTH="12" HEIGHT="12" BORDER="0" DATASIZE="140"> <A HREF="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-stem1aug01,1,6232042,print.story?coll=la-news-comment-letters">Print</A>
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Vote for a Cure: Vote Yes on Stem-Cell Research
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<A HREF="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-stem1aug01,0,3512757.story?coll=la-news-comment-letters">Vote for a Cure: Vote Yes on Stem-Cell Research</A>
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Ron Reagan's speech on stem-cell research at the Democratic convention was
welcome support for those of us who wait and suffer. I am probably too old — 68
— to benefit from this very ethical research, but would like to hope that
someday people will not have their lives stolen by Parkinson's disease even though
they remain alive.
This whole discussion is ridiculous, as no human beings are destroyed as
opponents of stem-cell research would like you to believe. The choice is between
going back to the ignorance of the Middle Ages and moving forward with hope.
Please don't kill my hope. Vote for stem-cell research and Proposition 71.
Rayilyn Brown
Murrieta
*
President Reagan's son has refocused the issue of therapeutic stem-cell
research. The federal restrictions on stem-cell research are one of many areas in
which members of the scientific community have said that politics are
interfering with science. Last month, more than 4,000 scientists, including 48 Nobel
laureates and 127 members of the National Academy of Sciences, issued a letter
accusing the Bush administration of distorting and suppressing science to suit
its political goals.
By using stem cells, we have the potential to stop diseases such as
Alzheimer's, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's and diabetes, along with many
others. We have the opportunity to give tens of thousands of people a second
chance at life.
Opposition to the research comes primarily from religious groups, which
contend that the 5-day-old human embryos (a clump of a dozen or so nondescript,
undifferentiated cells, the size of a dot) from which the cells initially are
obtained, are humans, with rights that supercede those of the multitudes of
diseased children and adults in the world.
California voters will have a chance on the November ballot to approve a
$3-billion bond proposal to finance stem-cell research. They should do so.
D.S. Shillam MD
Pasadena
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