Stem Cell Research Compromise Misguided

Re “Possible Stem Cell Compromise Cited by Bush Catholic Advisors,” July 8: Bless the dedicated pioneering scientists who are going forward with basic stem cell research. May they be successful in developing practical treatments for such scourges as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes before the misguided moralists who oppose stem cell research themselves contract these afflictions. These dedicated but thoroughly misguided souls will, at that point, understand that it is actual living human beings--parents, children, lovers, friends--who are more important than clumps of embryonic cells frozen in nitrogen and destined for disposal.

Malcolm D. Wise

Ontario

The Catholic Church has been stunting the growth of scientific research since before the days of Copernicus. Now the Bush White House is talking with Catholic leaders who want to dictate the circumstances under which research can take place. The issue has become another encroachment on a woman’s reproductive rights.

Catholic scientists are free to follow their leaders’ prohibition of such research, and Catholic couples need not provide embryos for research. Further, no one need avail themselves of any therapies that might be developed. But the Catholic Church has no more right to dictate which research is worthy of tax dollars than, say, Louis Farrakhan or the Lubavitch rabbi. Research should be funded according to potential therapeutic benefits, guided by the ethical concerns of the larger community, not just the most vocal and politically organized.

Bruce Kaplan

Los Angeles

To those conservative Catholics talking about the compromise of using embryos for stem cell research: If I receive goods that I know are stolen, is that OK or is it illegal? If I take part in a robbery, even if I just sit in the car and wait, am I not convicted of a crime if caught? So if I use already harvested embryos, is that OK even though my church has consistently said it is wrong? What am I missing? Seems to me another example of morals being compromised for political expediency.

Richard Kondrat

Riverside

I would like to see all opponents to federally funded embryonic stem cell research, in Congress and elsewhere, sign an oath swearing that they and their families will never avail themselves of any treatments if any are derived from such research. Let them put their money (and lives) where their mouths are. And since they are so quick to deny this hope to millions who do not believe as they do, let them get out of the way and let such benefits go to others, if successful treatments result.

George E. Goodwin

Anaheim