Stem cells hold great promise

By Will Richardson

Several years ago, Missouri's sick and disabled citizens found themselves in a fight with the Missouri Legislature which, on several occasions, tried to criminalize certain forms of stem-cell research, including research with embryonic stem cells made by somatic cell nuclear transfer.

A stem-cell amendment was put before voters so Missourians could decide for themselves if our citizens should have access to any research and cures allowed under federal law. It was supported by more than 100 leading patient and medical organizations, including the Missouri State Medical Association.

A poll conducted by HCD Research and Muhlenberg College showed that 83 percent of physicians in America supported the research, along with 80 Nobel Prize-winning scientists who wrote President Bush in support of it.

Just recently, three prominent scientists including two Americans were awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine for their research in this potentially lifesaving field.

While their motto was "Know the truth," misguided opponents of this research used misinformation, half-truths and fear as preferred tools in an attempt to create public hysteria not unlike that used during the infamous Salem witch trials in order to defeat the amendment for lifesaving cures.

These opponents made extravagant claims of cures from other stem-cell sources. Credible scientists investigating these claims found them to be "cruelly deceptive." They also made the claim, and still do, that the wording of the amendment was misleading. Three Missouri courts disagreed, and that disingenuous tactic has failed opponents in other states as well. In the end, the people prevailed and the stem-cell amendment passed.

The same anti-patient, anti-cures crowd that opposed this amendment will be asking Missourians to sign petitions to repeal our access to some of the promising forms of federally approved stem-cell research and cures.

Opponents wrongly claim that somatic cell nuclear transfer is the same as human cloning. In fact, somatic cell nuclear transfer is not human cloning. The medical purpose of this procedure is to replicate stem cells in a lab dish, not to make human beings. The stem-cell amendment makes cloning or attempting to clone a human being a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In their zeal to repeal our access to cures, these opponents. and presumably the handful of doctors advising them, ignored basic science and basic law and had to file their petition three times. First, their deceptive initiative would have excluded Missourians with common chromosomal abnormalities like Down, Klinefelter and Turner syndromes from the human race. It seems that, while they consider microscopic cells in a dish to be human, the living, breathing, laughing and crying individuals in our midst do not rate the same consideration. This reeks of the barbaric attitudes toward people with disabilities abandoned long ago by civilized peoples.

After they improved their initiative, it was discovered that it would have made the e-mail addresses of those signing the petition part of the public record, opening them up to spammers and scammers.

For centuries, those seeking new cures have faced attack from the uninformed or the deeply superstitious. Surgery was once considered sacrilegious and a violation of God's creation. Those attempting the first smallpox inoculations were accused of interfering with God's will and threatened with death. Doctors who conducted the first heart transplant were labeled as monsters by those still mired in medieval thinking.

With the stem-cell amendment in our state constitution, Missouri stands with many states and countries, including the European Union, in outlawing human cloning while encouraging cutting-edge, ethical medical research. Embryonic stem cells, including those made by nuclear transfer, represent hope for millions of patients. They are important tools in the search for cures for many diseases, including Parkinson's, diabetes, ALS and spinal cord injuries.

Finally, by passing the stem-cell amendment, decisions about medical treatments are left to doctors, patients and families, where they belong, not in the hands of legislators beholding to pressure groups.

My hope is that Missourians, with our strong values, can lead the charge to alleviate pain and suffering. Please do not let the anti-cures forces repeal our access to medical care. Please do not sign their petitions.

Will Richardson is the director of outreach and education at the SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence in Cape Girardeau.