HEADLINE: LIMITING STEM-CELL RESEARCH MAY DIM A GREAT FUTURE
BODY: Before we rush to support and
accept the decision by the U.S. House of Representatives to outlaw all cloning
and severely limit stem-cell research ("House Bans Human
Cloning," Aug. 1), each of us should fully understand what future options
are being closed out.
We should examine not just our
system of ethical values, but also the ranking of importance of these values and
their application.
Imagine a very real future in which
you are a mother whose child is paralyzed from the waist down by a spinal cord
injury. Fortunately, the nucleus from one of your child's skin or other cells
may be introduced into one of your own unfertilized eggs from which the nucleus
has been removed.
Cloning techniques and stem-cell
research have already been developed that supply your child with new stem cells,
which, because they are an exact genetic match of your child, can replace the
injured nerves without danger of rejection. Your child is able to walk, play and
breathe again unassisted. This is one possible future. We seem to be headed
toward another.
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