To the editor:
Stand Up To Cancer, a one hour television program, aired September 10. The teamwork of scientists and doctors from many institutes have benefited cancer survivors.
The most inspiring, truthful words were spoken by a doctor who said that Steve Hall survived his brain cancer because of a “vaccine made from his own brain tumor!” His own adult stem cells allowed his body cells to “cure himself.” Please re-read this last sentence. It is adult stem cells that have cured multiple diseases, not embryonic stem cells obtained from embryos (human babies).
Please learn and speak out on the difference between “adult stem cells” and “embryonic stem cells.” Support adult stem cell research, be it from adult stem cells or stem cells from a baby’s umbilical cord. Over 70 diseases are being treated using adult stem cells, including blood and bone marrow, sickle cell anemia, leukemia, lymphoma, bone marrow, and corneal transplants grown from a patient’s own stem cells.
Television and newspapers have not always made this clear by failing/neglecting to define, “stem cells.” When you donate to cancer research, ask “for what will my money be used?” Please donate only to an organization/institute that does research on adult stem cells.
For, is it ever right to kill a human being? Research on embryonic stem cells does exactly this, kill a human baby who is in the process of growing and developing.
Sr. Rosalia Bauer, FSPA, Beloit