Amendment 2 offers best hope

To the editor:

Two local doctors, Michael Wulfers and Richard Martin, have made comments recently in opposition to Amendment 2 for lifesaving cures, offering elaborate explanations of stem-cell research aimed at confusing voters on this lifesaving science.

So what do you really need to know? Most experts disagree with these doctors. More than 80 Nobel laureates, thousands of Missouri doctors and nurses, the Missouri Medical Association and Congress all support embryonic stem-cell research.

Wulfers recently stated that this was a "conservative issue." Tell that to Nancy Reagan and U.S. Sen. Bill Frist. They may disagree. This is not a political or religious issue. It is an issue of society versus deadly disease.

Opponents of Amendment 2 have arrogantly stated that the disabled community has been given "false hope" by this amendment. I am an advocate for the disabled community, am disabled myself and have a loved one with multiple sclerosis. In this case, it is the doctors who have not done their homework. We have studied this long and hard. Those of us with disabilities have endured resistance to cures for centuries. Read the history of those who pioneered the polio vaccine, inoculation for smallpox and even heart transplants and compare it to this debate. You will find the same misguided rhetoric. People with disabilities are living, breathing, laughing, crying and, in many cases, dying human beings. If you are pro-life, please vote yes for Amendment 2.

WILL RICHARDSON, Jackson