Letters | Dose of reality on stem cells

RE

"Stem Cells: The Inconvenient Truth,"

the op-ed by Christine Flowers, I have one thing to say: Ring, ring, this is reality calling . . .

Ms. Flowers says that "after years of research and unrealistic expectations, the results are still disappointing." But if researchers had government funding and support, more substantive results may occur. We simply can't throw away promising scientific research just because it isn't yielding immediate results, especially when greater government funding is likely to enhance those results considerably.

I agree with her assertion that all embryos should be given the opportunity to become viable human beings. But even if abortion were illegal, most reasonable minds realize that it would still occur, perhaps rampantly, yielding so many discarded fetuses. Sad but true.

So why not put those discarded fetuses, which may have otherwise been born into lives of neglect, abuse or abandonment, to good use to save the lives of people who already exist as living, productive beings.

No doubt, if Ms. Flowers were able to wave a magic wand (or her Bible) or do whatever it is that conservative-thinking individuals would do to save the world and make us all live happily ever after, she might be able to make disease disappear and turn all those unwanted fetuses into living human beings. But such idealism has no basis in reality.

Tim Kilpatrick, Philadelphia