There are stem-cell alternatives

To the editor:

In a recent letter Mary Meyer said there is "nothing moral or ethical" about refusing to use stem cells to help your own child, and, as everyone seems to be doing lately, plays the disability card in an effort to make voters vote yes on Amendment 2 out of pity.

However, as a new father of twins, I remember the ultrasounds in which my son and daughter were still just groups of microscopic cells. You can try to make yourself feel better by calling these new lives cells, embryos or any other cold, lifeless name. Yet at the end of the day it is human life, plain and simple. I cannot look into the eyes of my 3-month-old daughter and ethically want to kill another young life just to help her.

Also, there are zero cures from killing embryos to date, yet adult stem-cell research is looking promising, as is cord-blood research, which never seems to get any publicity whatsoever. So we can help the disabled like Mary Meyer through these promising avenues without killing new life, which is truly God's greatest miracle.

JONATHAN E.U. THOMASSON Sr., Cape Girardeau