LETTERS: ACTORS PURSUE SELFISH BENEFITS FROM STEM CELLS

To the editor:

Actor Christopher Reeve and seven scientists have filed a federal lawsuit accusing the administration of illegally withholding funding for contentious stem-cell research and causing irreparable harm by delaying the creation of therapies that would save lives.

Reeve and actor Michael J. Fox have paraded around Capitol Hill for months lobbying for the destruction of human embryos in order to harvest stem cells for morbid research, calling the research the "silver bullet" to finding cures for a range of diseases. Yet this research has not yielded a single benefit for human patients, and clinical use is years away. Stem cells from adult tissues, bone marrow and umbilical-cord blood already have proved clinically more promising. Adult stem cells have proved beneficial in treating brain tumors, cancer, strokes and other diseases.

I sympathize with Reeve and Fox, and although I used to admire their courage in the face of their difficulties, I now find myself realizing that these men are nothing more than selfish and narcissistic little men.

There can never be a justification for killing babies in their earliest stages of life. It is unnecessary and immoral. The administration now has 60 days to respond to the lawsuit.

CHRISTINE E. STEPHENS

Cape Girardeau