Stem Cell Issue: a Crux Between Law, Religion

Re “Religions Divided on Stem Cell Issue,” July 21: We live in a secular democracy. Roman Catholics and fundamentalist Christians are free to practice their beliefs. Don’t believe in abortion? Don’t have one. Don’t believe in stem cell research? Sign a waiver refusing treatment before the tremors of Parkinson’s disease no longer allow you to sign your name or the onset of Alzheimer’s no longer allows you to remember your narrow, fundamentalist mind-set.

Bryan Cooper

North Hollywood

Your article posed the question: “Is it morally permissible to sacrifice an embryonic life for the promise of greater community good?” It has long been acknowledged in Christianity that one may not do evil in order to bring about good. As a Catholic I am profoundly angered and embarrassed by certain so-called Catholic theologians who misrepresent church teaching. The church has always been and will always be the courageous and unpopular voice for the unborn.

Jeniffer Powers

Venice

A July 22 letter on stem cell research repeats the tired old canard that politicians should not decide moral questions. This is 180 degrees backward. Any decision a legislative body makes should be “good,” or “beneficial,” or “productive,” or whatever synonym for “moral” we care to use. What other legitimate reason is there for making laws? If laws are not designed to promote something good, why pass them?

Brad Haugaard

Monrovia

The debate over stem cell research: Is it moral, is it murder? Is an embryo in a petri dish life or does life not happen until it is in a woman’s body and forming a spine? Only God can answer these questions. We have to look at what God has given us: the knowledge of how to take stem cells from an unused embryo and possibly program them to replace cells that people with life-threatening diseases have lost. Why wouldn’t we embrace this knowledge and try to find cures for millions of people?

I do not believe if God were standing here today, he/she would say: Let the people suffer and die, I choose the embryo in the petri dish! That’s not the God I know.

Florence Woolly

Westlake Village