HEALTH AND SCIENCE: Choose life: Support stem cell research
By JOHN C. DANFORTH
05/05/2004


The sanctity of human life certainly is involved in legislation introduced in the Missouri Legislature that would criminalize stem-cell regeneration research.

However, this long-time opponent of abortion believes that the legislation would do the opposite of what its sponsors want to accomplish. Far from protecting life, the legislation, if effective, would seal the fates of thousands of people currently doomed to
horrible deaths.

An estimated 30,000 Americans suffer from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Their life expectancy is two to five years after the diagnosis, and given the cruel course of the disease, when death finally comes, it is a
blessing.

Affecting the nervous system, ALS begins with wasting and paralysis of the limbs and trunk. It then proceeds to destroy the power to speak, then to swallow and, eventually, to breathe. But ALS does not
impair the brain. The patient, desperately trapped in a helpless body, remains fully aware of what is happening to him.

Cell regeneration research offers the hope that people suffering from ALS could grow new connections between their nerves and muscles that would make it possible to breathe, swallow, walk and hold the people they love.


Four and a half million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, and that number is expanding rapidly. Its victims survive for an average of eight years. Eventually, their bodies fail, but only after the
disease has stolen their minds.

They lose their memory, they become confused, they're sometimes plagued by delusions and hallucinations, and their personalities can undergo significant shifts. They lose control of their bowels and bladders and require care for their most basic human functions.

Cell regeneration research could discover how to get neural cells to change into whatever type of cell the Alzheimer's patient's brain needs, restoring functions that had been lost to the disease.

More than 800,000 Americans who have juvenile diabetes must take insulin to stay alive. Even with the best of care, they live under the constant threat of life-shortening and life-limiting complications that include kidney failure, heart attacks, strokes,
severe damage to the nervous system, blindness and amputations.

Scientists believe cell regeneration research may lead to a cure for juvenile diabetes by transplantinginsulin-producing islets into
people with the disease.

ALS, Alzheimer's and juvenile diabetes are but three of the terrible diseases for which cell regeneration research offers the promise of a cure. Others include Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries
and, indeed, cancer.

Yet supporters of the proposed legislation would block this research by subjecting scientists who do it to criminal prosecution. Sponsors of the legislation argue that by criminalizing scientific research they are protecting innocent human life. What they are preventing is the creation and use of a collection of stem cells, smaller than the
head of a pin, never fertilized by sperm and never implanted into a uterus.

There's no disagreement about prohibiting experiments into the Frankenstein-like cloning of duplicate human beings. Let's vigorously prosecute the few weird individuals who might attempt such a thing. But it's a long way from the mad scientists of B
movies to the labs of major universities where researchers are seeking cures for juvenile diabetes.

The proposal to criminalize cell regeneration research calls for a choice between two understandings of human life. On one hand, we
have the millions of people who suffer from ALS, Alzheimer's, juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's, spinal cord injuries and cancer - and the loved ones who care for them and suffer by their sides. On
the other hand, we have tiny bundles of unfertilized cells existing in petri dishes.

Supporters of the legislation should explain to the afflicted and their loved ones why they care more about those cell bundles than they do about the people.


John C. Danforth, a Republican who represented Missouri in the U.S.
Senate (1976-1995), is a partner at the law firm Bryan Cave LLP.

I have such a disease and I cannot see how My Bush can stick by such a misguided view while gaily supporeting big corporation to palute the planet or kill many people and his own through a misguided foriegn policy.

Mr. Danforth, you could not possibly be more wrong. There is nothing to be gained whatsoever from condemning the innocent creations of God to become just products on a shelf somewhere! Innocent humans must NEVER be made products for human consumption or injection. To suggest otherwise, would be endorsing cannabalism. Surely that is not what you meant? That is my primary argument against the ungodly idea that human embryoes should be chopped, sliced and diced to make drugs. But there are more reasons to oppose this: when the supply of stored embryoes ran out supposing your ungodly research continued, then where would they get more? They would have to milk the ovaries of women and stimulate the ovaries with hormones thus jeopardizing the women involved and reducing the then living women to mere products to be squeezed dry of eggs to produce embryoes, and making them also products for sale. Then the men's sperm would have to be bought too in order for fertilization to take place and so men would just become products to be used and discarded too. Then end result would be a total devaluation of the human race. NO ONE would benefit from that! My other reason is that any nation that would so devalue human life and reduce it to mere products for sale, would become degenerate completely and then God would be compelled to act to destroy it. He will not let depravity take over! The Bible is clear on that subject, nor is God 'neutral' to child sacrifice which is what human embryo research is.
As to your challenging and cowardly remarks about letting those opposed to such sin tell the sick, well I will tell them; bring them on! There can never be any justification for what you suggest.There will never be any good to come from killing of innocents because God said so when HE said, "thou shalt not kill' in Exodus 20:13.To suggest that after God said not to kill that some wicked humans can kill and create a product to market and gain from it would be suggesting that you can make God a liar. Nothing could be further from the truth. "For what if some did not believe?shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid! yes, let God be true and every man a liar." [Romans 3:3-4] Gloria Poole Pappas,RN

Again, I feel obliged to reply. Human insulin is used in the treatment of diabetes. Do you suggest then that humans are devalued, commoditized or degraded when they are 'milked' for their insulin? Humans are used in the testing of new medications, a most necessary step. The humans in this process are not devalued as their consent is requested ahead of time. Sperm and egg cells can likewise be donated.

Yes, I do believe that using human insulin to inject into other humans is a bad thing.It violates God's princples and it commercializes humans as products. God said we are made in His image in Genesis 1:27-28,"So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created HE them.And God blessed them and God said unto them,'be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.' Regarding God's plan for medicine, "And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed; it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary; and the fruit thereof shall be for meat; and the leaf thereof for medicine.' [Ezekial 47:12] Another scripture about medicine, "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine but a broken spirit drieth the bones." Proverbs 17:22.
If human insulin which is an enzyme produced in humans' bodies given to another human worked for the long term that would be evidence but it does not. The people who take insulin don't live necessarily longer or better and no one has really studied whether the patients using human insulin fare worst than those usng another synthetic type. I would imagine from what I know about God's words and the Scripture in Galatians 6:7 that they fare worst.* Their lives are controlled, dominated by their dependence upon other humans for a body fluid. The same precautions that apply to the use of, or contact with any other body fluid should apply to the use of human enzymes. Body fluids have been shown to transer HIV leading to AIDs. I think it is a very unsafe practice.
---* "Be not deceived.God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." [Galatians 6:7 ]. If you follow this out logically, and you know that disobedience to God is a sin, and God tells you human life is made in His image and that we are to be holy, pure, temples for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and you continue to put the very things God tells us not to do in your body, then that would be a sin. Considering that Romans 6:23 is written, "for the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord", then you know that disobeying God leads to death,not life or health. God is not mocked.HE will not allow blessings to flow to those who disobey HIM and purposely dishonor HIS words. gloria poole pappas,RN