Madam, - I write to comment on your editorial (July 20th) on President Bush's human embryonic stem cell veto.
The editorial correctly points out that stem cell research has the potential to discover cures for several/many human diseases. Nobody disputes this.
But the editorial says nothing about the only reason we are having a debate on embryonic stem cell research - ethics.
In order to produce human embryonic stem cells for research, human embryos must be destroyed. This is ethically repugnant to all who believe that embryos, from the earliest stages, must never be deliberately killed.
Neither did your editorial point out that nobody has an ethical objection to research on stem cells from adult tissues or from umbilical cords, and that most of the promising human results to-date have been achieved with stem cells from these sources and not with human embryonic stem cells.
It is true that research using animals has indicated that embryonic stem cells are more flexible and yield results more easily than stem cells from adult tissues.
However, as far as I am aware, there is no compelling scientific reason to think that research using adult stem cells will not be equally successful as research using embryonic stem cells, albeit the results will probably be achieved with somewhat greater difficulty. This seems to be a small price to pay for getting around an enormous ethical hurdle. - Yours, etc,
Prof WILLIAM REVILLE, Department of Biochemistry, University College,Cork.
Madam, - It may not seem very fashionable in today's modern Ireland, but we should support President Bush's leadership on his decision to veto federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Yes, I did say leadership! The day after his veto, Germany has begun to lobby its other EU partners to ban European funding for such research too.
A narrow majority in the European Parliament voted last month in favour of allowing continued public funding for stem cell research.
If Germany can force an amendment in the council of EU governments, parliament would have to reconsider the issue on a second reading.
Ireland should now join Germany, Poland, Austria, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovenia and reject the use of public EU funds for the use of embryonic stem cell research.
This type of research will continue in both the US and the EU anyway, without the use of taxpayers' money. But the use of taxpayers' money for funding is where I draw the line.
In using his veto, President Bush said "I felt like crossing this line would be a mistake, and once crossed we would find it almost impossible to turn back". I'm sorry to say, but I'm with President Bush on this. - Yours, etc,
BEN DOYLE, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10.