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I am pro life. That is why I favor expanded embryonic stem cell research -- for the sake of human life.
I'm thinking of Margaret, who grew up in my parish. She's now a tall, beautiful young lady who is leading fund-raising
work for the Episcopal Church's Katrina recovery program in the diocese of Mississippi. Margaret was diagnosed with a life-threatening
congenital blood disease as a child. Thanks to the wonderful services of the St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis she
survived her childhood and is in what we hope is a complete remission. Stem cells are already being used to treat leukemia,
lymphoma and several other inherited blood disorders. If Margaret were to have a relapse, stem cell therapy may be one of
the options that could save her life again.
I'm also thinking of Sarah, a woman of great dignity and resilience. She lives with Parkinson's disease. She gallantly
comes to church nearly every Sunday despite the fact that she has fainted there on three occasions. She walks with careful
grace to the altar rail, shaking ever-so-slightly as receives the sacrament. Her eyes still shine, and she usually passes
us a touching slight smile before returning cautiously to her pew.
And then there is Jack. He's still in his twenties and grateful to be alive. He's learned how to transport himself and
to succeed in his job despite being paralyzed in an accident not too long ago. He's got heart and grit. He hopes one day
to be free of his wheelchair.
Gwen is one of those people of noble character who has affected so many lives with her generosity and wisdom. Behind
her beautiful blue eyes is a sharp and incisive mind imprisoned by a body which is betraying her. She has ALS (Lou Gehrig's
disease), which destroys the body while leaving the mind fully functional. Her good humor and wit still inspire her friends
whenever she is able to communicate as she does in increasingly creative ways.
When Joyce comes to the altar rail to receive her communion each Sunday, her knotted hands open in a delicate, curled
manner. Each joint has swollen nodes of rheumatoid arthritis that resisting even simple motions to open and close. She bears
the patterned lines of scars from various surgeries that have rendered some slight mobility gains.
Jennifer is a teenager who sings in the children's choir. For years she has lived with early onset diabetes. Each year
she gives herself hundreds of insulin shots. She has to be so vigilant about her diet and attentive to the signals from her
body. She lives with cares and worries that seem so heavy for such a young one.
Sometimes Mary calls her husband of 48 years "that nice man who visits me." She wondered who the attractive
woman was when her daughter brought their grandchild to meet her. Alzheimer's has taken away much of Mary's spirit and most
of her memory. Seizures and other bodily malfunctions are following now. There was a time when she was the social and recreational
director for a nursing home. Now she sits and watches blankly as someone else does that job.
These are all friends of mine. And every one of them has a disease which researchers think might be treated with stem
cell therapy one day. Today is not soon enough for me.
These are real people. They have lived and loved and contributed to the lives of others. They have talked and sung and
written and prayed. They have experienced rationality and spirit. I am not persuaded that a fertilized cell or a collection
of as yet undifferentiated cells with human DNA is the moral equivalent of these individuals.
Human life and consciousness is a mystery -- a mystery not to be taken lightly. I do not know when that which is distinctively
and fully human life begins. Neither do you. Embryos have had no thoughts or emotions as we conceive them.
I do know many fully human beings with thoughts and emotions who are threatened by illnesses and conditions that may be
treatable with the God-given potential of embryonic stem cell therapy. I believe President Bush's veto and our congressman
John Boozman's vote to sustain that veto last week was life destroying not life giving. Let our scientists use their gifts
to find new hope for life -- for God's sake -- and for the sake of Margaret and Sarah and Jack and Gwen and Joyce and Jennifer
and Mary and thousands like them.
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