posted October 12, 2007
Re: Roy Exum column "Nothing Is Impossible":
Mr. Exum,
Your article was moving, but at the risk of sounding harsh, I would disagree that these doctors deserve a Nobel Prize.
I know that this kind of stem cell research could wipe out some diseases, which is amazing, but this is the same sort of research that Hitler called for to create his desired race of blonde-haired, blue-eyed children.
Although fighting disease may be noble, the other uses of such research are beyond unethical. I feel it is immoral to decide on your child's sex, eye color, etc. What kind of message does that send to our children? Maybe this could cure Down's Syndrome. Now, tell that to a mother of a child with Down's Syndrome, and I am sure more often then not, she'd be appalled. Our children are given to us the way they are, and are all special.
We cannot praise them for the good they may have achieved without realizing the horrible things that could also be done with such research.
Gene targeting defies "Survival of the Fittest." Why can't we all be happy with how we are created?
Briann Lambert
East Ridge
briann.lambert@gmail.com
* * *
My children have Asperger's Syndrome, an autism-spectrum disorder. While this is not as debilitating as is Down's Syndrome, it is a very serious disorder that will affect them for the rest of their lives and color everything they do or hope or become. Yes, I love them and cherish them and I am better for having them in my lives than I was when I did not.
But your assertion that any mother of a child with a disabilty would knowingly and willfully look askance at any opportunity to save other children from such a dread disease is so far beyond ludicrous that it's appalling. If such a thing could have been done when I was pregnant, if a doctor could have eradicated Asperger's from my children so that THEY would not have to suffer with it, then I would have leapt upon that and done everything that I could possibly have done in order to make it happen. Your suggestion that I desire my children's suffering makes me sick. It is not their Asperger's that defines them, sir. That is not the whole of who and what they are and I resent your words that imply such.
However, this was not offered then and so my children must suffer with this and they and I will do what needs to be done to make sure they are happy and as healthy and as whole as they can be.
Stem cells are not evil. They are the key to possibly curing cancer, to curing deformity, to curing Down's Syndrome and MS and a host of other ills that can be visited upon an unsuspecting, innocent fetus. Yes, we realize that horrible things could be done with them; but so can horrible things be done with any utensil. A kitchen knife is fine for butchering a chicken but what happens if someone turns it upon another human? Do we ban kitchen knives? No. Stem cells are a tool just as a kitchen knife is but these are tools that can help us to cure things that we have not found any other ways or means of curing.
If the use of stem cells cures just one child of Down's Syndrome, then I'm all for them.
The life and happiness of any one child is worth any risk, any price. If it makes just one child better, then I applaud it, wholeheartedly and without reservation.
Stephanie Minton
IrishLamnt@yahoo.com
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