September 30, 2011

Letters to the Editor

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No letters were printed this week; here is the letter from last week:

Learn as much as possible before donating to an organization’s cause

I belong to a large parish in Indianapolis and, every few months, I see advertisements in our bulletin placed by families raising money to help cure diseases such as diabetes or cancer.

Although the intent of such fundraising is admirable, many people do not realize that too often, the money you raise is not being spent on legitimate medical research.

Rather, many of the largest and most well-known non-profit organizations are actually wasting your donations on human embryonic stem-cell research.

So-called embryonic stem-cell research is not research at all. It is gravely evil because it always kills a living human embryo.

Scientists who promote embryo destruction claim that since some of the embryos created for use in fertility treatments may never be implanted, they should be considered “left over.” This convenient label is used to justify killing the tiniest babies to obtain their stem cells.

In order to avoid funding the destruction of innocent human life, it is critical that before you begin a fundraising project that you learn as much as possible about how your donations will be spent.

Fortunately, this task is not difficult thanks to the extensive investigations carried out by pro-life groups such as Life Decisions International (LDI).

LDI publishes a free report titled “Organization Watch,” which lists the names of groups who are on record as supporting the destruction of human embryos. To download a copy, log on to LDI’s website at www.fightpp.org.

If you want to support truly life-saving research, you may also wish to consider donating to the John Paul II Stem Cell Research Institute. Their mission is to conduct medical research that respects the dignity of all human life. You can learn more about them on their website at www.jp2sri.org.

Destroying even one embryo for the sake of medical research can never be justified. There is no such thing as a “left over” human being.

- Julia Oelker, Indianapolis

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