Letter: Stem cell issue causing much confusion

Tuesday, May 14, 2002 | 8:55 a.m.

In regards to Vernon Bostick's May 9 letter, "Bush stands in the way of regeneration": It is obvious that there is confusion here and, if that is so, it suggests that others are also confused about it.

When undifferentiated adult stem cells are taken from you, modified in a laboratory and returned to you, regeneration occurs, and in this Mr. Bostick is correct. This has been highly successful in treating some heart disorders and several cancers, among other things. George Bush is not opposed to that.

Cloning is different and occurs when a woman's egg, with nucleus removed, is combined with other tissue which fuses to it and grows in the same way as a normally fertilized egg. If implanted in the womb and allowed to develop to maturity, the individual would be fatherless, her mother's sister and her grandmother's daughter. This is called "reproductive cloning" and the House, the Senate and President Bush are all opposed to it.

There is however, a procedure called "therapeutic cloning," which the House has banned, to which Bush is opposed, yet certain members of the Senate support it. In this technique, the cloned person would not be implanted in a womb, he would be created for the sole purpose of killing him so that scientists could experiment with his stem cells. This type of embryonic stem cell research has, to date, been a total disaster causing some miserable, painful deaths in people with Parkinsonism.

There are two basic issues here: 1) cloning for genetic manipulation (i.e. power) and 2) where should our research money go? It seems obvious that adult (not embryonic) stem cell research is the answer.

MARIE JONES