LETTERS: ADULT STEM CELLS ARE MORE RELIABLE THAN EMBRYONIC

To the editor:

President Bush has been under pressure from the Republican Main Street Alliance of 60 House and Senate moderates, including supposedly pro-life U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, to support stem-cell research.

In a draft of a letter sent to Bush to "not shut the door on research that could save millions of lives," they argued that the government should not just fund research from adult stem cells. This means they are urging Bush to fund research on embryos that would result in their death. People who have received embryo stem cells have had disastrous result, and science has proven that the use of adult stem cells, cells taken from umbilical-cord blood or even cells taken from adult arm muscle have proven much more successful.

Why was it not widely reported that mouse embryonic stem cells had been programmed to secrete insulin, indicating a cure for diabetes, but neglecting to mention that the mice receiving the embryonic stem cells died of diabetes? Why was it not reported that a year earlier adult pancreatic mouse stem cells successfully reversed diabetes in the mice receiving them?

Please contact your representatives and senators, including Emerson, and ask them to not start our country down another slippery slope from which we will be unable to extract ourselves. Once we start experimenting on embryos for the betterment of mankind, we will begin to experiment on the elderly, the handicapped or perhaps even prisoners.

CHRISTINE E. STEPHENS

Cape Girardeau