Voices: Stem cells (MO)

Many conservative activists have gotten themselves all worked up in opposition to the stem cell initiative. The claims being made by opponents of Amendment 2 are what are misleading, not the amendment.

Many Amendment 2 opponents advocate adult stem cell research and say that embryonic stem cell research is not needed. According to the National Institutes of Health: “Human embryonic stem cells are thought to have much greater developmental potential than adult stem cells.” (NIH web site, 2006). This is true because adult stem cells are “limited to differentiating into different cell types,” whereas embryonic stem cells can develop into many different cell types.

Opponents of Amendment 2 blur the distinctions between reproductive and therapeutic cloning using word association to scare voters. Referring to therapeutic cloning as “cloning” in general allows them to raise the fears that we all have about cloned people being born, something the amendment makes illegal.

Another tactic is to raise questions about the motives of those who support embryonic stem cell research by falsely claiming it is for financial gain. Ask Michael J. Fox how much he is in it for the money!

Finding cures for people like Michael and our own sons and daughters are more important than saving almost microscopic cells in a lab dish. Many of these cells are thrown away all the time at fertility clinics and where was the outcry about that?

It wasn’t an election year.

Seth Jackson

http://www.joplinglobe.com/editorial/local_story_301185103.html