Letter: Fundamentalists ban research

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 | 8:50 a.m.

During the Middle Ages smallpox was regarded as the worst of the plagues. There was no cure. It was the most contagious disease. Nearly everyone became infected. Thirty percent died; the rest were disfigured for life. Dr. Jenner introduced vaccination at the beginning of the 19th century.

Science often conflicts with religion. Several states passed laws making vaccination illegal. The Catholic Church opposed vaccination. It took more than a century to overcome religious prejudice, but eventually everyone was vaccinated and smallpox was eliminated worldwide.

Vaccination and antibiotics have infectious diseases under control; medical science is now focused on hereditary and degenerative ailments. Human cloning has shown the way to cure these incurable afflictions. But again science is in conflict with religion.

This time it is not just in the Bible Belt that Christian fundamentalists have the political clout to halt medical progress. They control the Republican Party and they own the White House. Last week the House of Representatives passed a bill making any and all human cloning a federal crime with fines up to $1 million and prison terms up to 10 years.

Christian fundamentalists are not banning just making human babies; they have banned medical research. Rep. James Greenwood introduced an amendment that would have exempted medical research from the ban, but it was rejected. Nevada Reps. Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter voted for the cloning ban. They also voted to halt medical progress by voting against Greenwood's amendment.

Christian fundamentalists have the clout to make their religious beliefs the law of the land. And that affects all of us. Because of their religion we will be denied relief from our ailments. The first colonist came to America for freedom of religion. What we need today is freedom from religion.

VERNON BOSTICK