Letter: ‘Specks on a lab dish’ are human, too

Friday, July 14, 2006 | 7:38 a.m.

How can one equate the cloning and killing of human beings with political ambition? Marianne Means' July 5 commentary states, "A majority of members (of Congress) are siding with live human beings over what amounts to little specks of matter on a lab dish."

All of us were little specks of matter at one time and our little specks contained everything that we needed except for nourishment and safety to make us the human beings that we are today.

Just because the specks don't look like humans doesn't mean they are not. We can't see the wind either, but we know that it exists.

Killing the little specks for their embryonic stem cells has, so far, not produced one single effective treatment for any disease or disorder. On the other hand, adult stem cells taken from skin, cord blood and bone marrow have killed no one but have successfully treated at least 65 conditions: 23 types of cancer, 14 types of auto-immune diseases, repaired heart damage, caused corneal regeneration, treated three kinds of immuno-deficiencies, three types of neural degenerative disease and injury, 10 kinds of anemias and blood conditions, four types of wounds and injuries and six other metabolic disorders.

It is mean-spirited to suggest that the president and members of Congress who support the right to life and have encouraged adult stem-cell research are simply pandering to people of religious persuasion. It is equally mean-spirited to deliberately ignore the adult stem-cell successes while promoting what has been an abject failure, namely, embryonic stem-cell therapy.

Marie Jones, Las Vegas