From the Archives: Pray for people, not just stem cells (January 16, 2007)
This story originally appeared in The Daily Tar Heel.
Pray for people, not just stem cells
By David Donovan
January 16, 2007
In my former residence of Trinity, there's a church with a billboard that it uses to frighten nonbelievers and children. One day it read, "Stem cells may help in this life, but what about the next?"
You might know that stem cells are cells, about the size of the period in this sentence, taken from an early stage embryo.
Due to their ability to develop into every type of cell in the body, they bear boundless potential to cure some of our most debilitating diseases. Alzheimer's. Parkinson's. Spinal cord injuries. Some people try to downplay the potential of these cells, but the medical consensus is that it's unmatched.
Most Americans support the research, but progress is stymied by a bloc of the population and the president they control. Once cells are committed to research, they no longer have the ability to grow into human beings, and opponents equate the end of this potential with the killing of human life. These are the same folks you sometimes see in the Pit carrying six-foot-high signs listing all the things God hates such as, most oddly, "People who talk to their pets more than God."
Apparently, God does not hate poor grammar.
I can't believe He disapproves of life-saving research either. Congress passed a bill last year to allow research on new stem cell lines. Bush vetoed it. The House passed the same bill Thursday, which the Senate likely will ratify, with possibly the same result. Another veto would be tragic.
It would be one thing if the cells in question were actually destined to become people. The cells are created in vitro, meaning egg and sperm are united in a lab for later placement in a mother. Many of the couples donating cells later decide not to go through the process, so the tragedy is that few embryos would become people.
There are hundreds of thousands of cells; maybe a hundred have been adopted and birthed. Most cells simply are disposed of, and the legislation applies only to cells that would otherwise be discarded. These are life-saving cures, simply trashed.
No one ever has explained to me how discarding embryos by incineration shows more respect for life than using them to develop cures that would actually keep people alive. At least, not well enough to justify denying hope to thousands with terminal diseases. "Respect for life" cannot possibly mean such callous disregard for people already living, and living in pain.
Michael J. Fox has become one of the most persuasive advocates for research, persuasive due to the way people remember him - handsome, talented, brilliant and cool. Today, he has trouble speaking clearly and controlling the shaking of his own body - a sobering image that softened some hard hearts.
It only takes one person you love who needs a reason for hope to open eyes. My best friend from middle school was confined to a wheelchair from spina bifida. I saw the damage it inflicted, not just physically but socially, to someone who was just a child. Spina bifida is one of the diseases for which stem cell research is particularly promising, so not surprisingly, my support for it is unshakable.
Some conservatives, such as former Sens. John Danforth and Bill Frist, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, support the research out of personal experience. They were apparently not convinced that a cell slated for incineration was more important than a real person whom they loved.
I have to hope that something happens that changes President Bush's heart, too, before he's called to vote on stem cell research.
It only takes one friend who needs a reason for hope to make someone a believer in the need for stem cell research. And it'll only take one vote to let doctors create first hope, and then cures.
Pray for people, not just stem cells
By David Donovan
January 16, 2007
In my former residence of Trinity, there's a church with a billboard that it uses to frighten nonbelievers and children. One day it read, "Stem cells may help in this life, but what about the next?"
You might know that stem cells are cells, about the size of the period in this sentence, taken from an early stage embryo.
Due to their ability to develop into every type of cell in the body, they bear boundless potential to cure some of our most debilitating diseases. Alzheimer's. Parkinson's. Spinal cord injuries. Some people try to downplay the potential of these cells, but the medical consensus is that it's unmatched.
Most Americans support the research, but progress is stymied by a bloc of the population and the president they control. Once cells are committed to research, they no longer have the ability to grow into human beings, and opponents equate the end of this potential with the killing of human life. These are the same folks you sometimes see in the Pit carrying six-foot-high signs listing all the things God hates such as, most oddly, "People who talk to their pets more than God."
Apparently, God does not hate poor grammar.
I can't believe He disapproves of life-saving research either. Congress passed a bill last year to allow research on new stem cell lines. Bush vetoed it. The House passed the same bill Thursday, which the Senate likely will ratify, with possibly the same result. Another veto would be tragic.
It would be one thing if the cells in question were actually destined to become people. The cells are created in vitro, meaning egg and sperm are united in a lab for later placement in a mother. Many of the couples donating cells later decide not to go through the process, so the tragedy is that few embryos would become people.
There are hundreds of thousands of cells; maybe a hundred have been adopted and birthed. Most cells simply are disposed of, and the legislation applies only to cells that would otherwise be discarded. These are life-saving cures, simply trashed.
No one ever has explained to me how discarding embryos by incineration shows more respect for life than using them to develop cures that would actually keep people alive. At least, not well enough to justify denying hope to thousands with terminal diseases. "Respect for life" cannot possibly mean such callous disregard for people already living, and living in pain.
Michael J. Fox has become one of the most persuasive advocates for research, persuasive due to the way people remember him - handsome, talented, brilliant and cool. Today, he has trouble speaking clearly and controlling the shaking of his own body - a sobering image that softened some hard hearts.
It only takes one person you love who needs a reason for hope to open eyes. My best friend from middle school was confined to a wheelchair from spina bifida. I saw the damage it inflicted, not just physically but socially, to someone who was just a child. Spina bifida is one of the diseases for which stem cell research is particularly promising, so not surprisingly, my support for it is unshakable.
Some conservatives, such as former Sens. John Danforth and Bill Frist, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, support the research out of personal experience. They were apparently not convinced that a cell slated for incineration was more important than a real person whom they loved.
I have to hope that something happens that changes President Bush's heart, too, before he's called to vote on stem cell research.
It only takes one friend who needs a reason for hope to make someone a believer in the need for stem cell research. And it'll only take one vote to let doctors create first hope, and then cures.
posted by Ithakid | 1:48 PM
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