September 29, 2001
Stem cell column rebutted by reader
In her column, "Stem cell research boils down to killing," of Sept. 21, Corinne Perez takes a stand against allowing stem cell research. She writes, "(Stem cell research) will lead to the mistreatment of individuals in the respect that human beings will no longer be considered as humans but rather as scientific objects." Rather than argue the point, she asserts it as a predetermined fact.
Perhaps Miss Perez has not considered another medical phenomenon knows as organ transplants. When obtaining a license to operate a motor vehicle, one is asked (or was when I was first licensed) whether one would like one's organs donated in the event of death. For example, if I am killed by an intoxicated driver, organs for which I will have no further use will be donated to those who, otherwise healthy, can use them. However, using Miss Perez's logic, the use of my organs should be forbidden because it would encourage drunk driving.
There will no more become a market for killing babies for stem cells than there has been to kill adults for organ transplants. There has long been a regressive movement by anti-intellectual pseudo-religionists against scientific research of any kind, particularly medical research. Fortunately, most Americans are smarter than that. No one wants to create and kill babies for any reason, including scientific research, contrary to what apocalyptic Chicken Littles would have you believe.
Now, Miss Perez does not describe how people will be mistreated and disrespected by allowing this vital research; instead, she asserts it as though it was not only a foregone conclusion which needs no explaining. And no explanation is necessary - unless her point is to be made. There is plenty of mistreatment and disrespect of persons already living - for example, attempting to suppress research that can help millions, for no reason other than a thinly (if at all) veiled radical religious belief that must be forced on the rest of us.
If your religious belief requires you not condone certain medical research for whatever reason, Miss Perez, that's fine; don't support it and don't use it. But don't deny the rest of us its benefits just because you, in your finite wisdom, don't want us to have it.