November 2,2016

Dear Mr. President

Are you aware that nearly half of Americans are living with a disease that can be cured or reversed with the help of stem cell research? Stem cell research can help people with a wide range of issues, and in some cases it can cure or reverse the effect of the disease.

I can understand why stem cell research is such a touchy subject in the United States. Most of the reasons is because some people who are uneducated in the subject decided that the use unborn fetuses to conduct research, instead of stem cells. In some countries this may be true but in America, this practice was deemed unethical to do so. In America the placenta of babies that was donated by the parents after birth is what stem cells are used from.

After birth the placenta can be cryogenically frozen for the baby’s use later in life if need be, but this comes with a cost and monthly holding fees. So in most cases the parents decide to just dispose of it in which it gets put in a bag and then thrown away. I don't understand why people would just throw away something that can do so much good, but that's politics right.

The fact of the matter is, stem cell research can help people with spinal cord injury, Diabetes, heart disease, Lou Gehrig's disease, and that is just naming a few diseases. A stem cell is like a blank page to doctors and can be used as such. It can be manipulated and formed into any cell it needs to be. It's like a photocopier for cells. If you can name a type of cell in the body a stem cell can be that cell without issue. That's what they're for, so by saying we can't use them to help people is like saying we can't use something for its sole purpose. And for the people who say it's unethical to use something that was made inside of another human that is a byproduct of childbirth is unethical to me. I feel that if we can use something to change people's lives for the good we should and you should too as an American. Why just simply throw away something that can rewrite the medical books and add what I believed would be such a great chapter in the book of what man can do and what man mastered. Hopefully Mr. or miss president you can look into stem cell research and see that it can be very useful for people in the future.

Sincerely, 

Brandi