Stem-cell foes, here's a challenge for you

Ronnie Wallace reponded to a challenge in the Charlotte Observer. He has written well and certainly speaks for us Christians in the pro-life movement.

This letter was in the Observer Forum (opinion page) on Saturday. Let's take him on!

The article that issued the challenge:

Stem-cell foes, here's a challenge for you

After reading "Breakthrough in stem-cell research" (May 20) and keeping in mind the administration's ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, I believe everyone opposed to such research should sign a document agreeing to refuse any benefits it may produce. In other words, if these opponents encounter sickness or disease, neither they nor their children will receive any treatment developed through embryonic stem cell research.

This arrangement will determine clearly whether these people truly care more about a speck of cells or their family's well-being.

Hugh R. F. Campbell
Gastonia

Pastor Ronnie's response:

I accept Hugh Campbell's challenge. I will never accept a medical cure at the expense of an unborn child at any stage of development, embryonic or otherwise. In spite of the fact that I am a Type II diabetic with a family history of diabetes and with the possibility of a future diabetes cure from such research, I reject now and forever even treatment derived from such research. I am instructing my family that I have promised God that I will never accept a cure that came at the expense of another's life - born or unborn. I'd rather manually control my blood glucose with diet and oral medication or in the event that I develop Type I diabetes, insulin injections and constant finger prick monitoring and all the complications that go along with Type I maintenance, than be party to the exploitation of another human being for my medical benefit.

As a society it seems that we no longer share the fears of Mary Shelley about the moral implications of tampering with God's creation or of recreating our own version through the most barbaric methods that the human mind can conceive. It would appear that we have lost our fear of God and placed ourselves in a most precarious situation. Having lost our fear of God we have learned to hate Him, and according to Scripture, those who hate God love death. As a society, we love and embrace death in abortion, in euthanasia, in the incapacitated, and with stem cell death we add a new dimension to our hatred of God.

Ronnie Wallace
5805 Aqua Court
Charlotte, NC 28215
704-568-1055
rwallace21@carolina.rr.com