President Wrong on Stem Cell Issue

An answer by Christina Johnstone to a letter to the editor published in Herald Democrat, Sherman, Texas intitled "President Wrong on Stem Cell Issue"on March 21,2009.

What Mr. Smelser does’t tell you are that the Family Research Council that he cites is a right wing group that has a very strong political agenda. This is typical of someone of his political persuasion. His misleading letter made me furious and I’ll tell you why.
My beautiful younger sister & my only sibling, Victoria Joann Turk,had the juvenile onset of Huntington's a terminal genetic disease. Her life was a horror show that we as a family was not only forced to watch, but forced to participate. Despite all of the love, devotion & resources our loving parents gave, she was in many nursing homes and hospitals. I will never forget her shrieking as this disease literally ate her brain during one stay at a Plano Hospital. She was on the 3rd floor and all anyone could hear for three days and nights were her blood curdling screams. The doctors said there was nothing they could do for her pain. We prayed endlessly. This went on for 20 years. When Sis finally passed on at age 37, weighing 77 lbs and in a fetal position for many pain racked years, it was a mercy & a blessing. Vicki did not want to suffer like that and she had no agenda.
There are millions of Vicki’s and families out there with similar incurable genetic diseases or spinal cord injuries. Embryonic stem cell research show great promise toward a quicker cure for these helpless people that are beyond cellular stage, but do not have a second to waste.
While compassionate when it comes to individual stem cells, conservatives appear devoid of compassion when it comes to the suffering that millions of people, minute by minute, day by day, year after year must continue to endure. I only see one political agenda here and it is not President Obama’s. It is instead the political agenda of the Family Research Council and those who believe in the unrealistic right wing view of science, which is, scientific decisions are based on ideology, not facts.
Science is the effort to discover and increase human understanding of how reality works.