Other stem cell options

A recent letter to the editor (“Save lives, ease pain,” Nov. 13) mentioned this year’s appropriation of state tax dollars for stem cell research in California. It’s part of a program approved by California voters in 2004 to spend $3 billion of state funds over 10 years for stem cell research.

The $230 million approved for this year is spread over 14 projects. Only four involve embryonic stem cells. The rest involve adult stem cells, which are harvested without harm to the donor, or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), regular body cells reprogrammed into the equivalent of embryonic stem cells.

California’s taxpayer-funded program earmarked for embryonic stem cell research is doing what the private sector has been doing all along — focusing on adult stem cells, and now iPS cells, because that’s where the success and promise are.

I urge the University of Nebraska Board of Regents to do the same. Block expansion of human embryonic stem cell research at NU and direct our taxpayer-funded resources to research that is already working and poses no ethical problem by relying on destruction of human embryos.

Ken Knaus, Lincoln

Preserve the Niobrara

Nebraskans need the Niobrara River as a recognition of the beauty we have in our state, and, for me, a remembrance of the most wonderful experiences of my childhood.

We lived in Chicago in the 1930s, and my mother’s parents had a farm/ranch southwest of Valentine. When I was age 4, starting in 1932, each summer for six years my mother drove us to the home of her birth. I enjoyed each summer without indoor plumbing, electricity or telephone. I was a happy, busy worker catching mice, tending chickens, picking mulberries, hoeing gardens and other chores.

I enjoy delightful recollections of the harvesting, when the neighbor farmers/ranchers would go after the hay and pick the small amount of corn, the massive lunches prepared by mom and grandma, the garden crop canning.

Occasionally, cousins or other neighbor kids would come by to enjoy hiking or riding horseback to the Niobrara, about eight miles from the farmhouse, and each excursion was a delightful learning experience. Swimming, fishing and exploring were part of each trip. Sometimes my uncle would take me on a rattlesnake hunt, usually close to the Niobrara.

I hated to return to Chicago in September with indoor plumbing and other conveniences.

How I pray that the Niobrara’s bounty of beauty will not be destroyed, preserving the opportunities for others to enjoy and learn there.

Bob Lookabaugh, Ceresco

Not an excuse

Haven’t we been hearing for years that if Medicare costs were not reduced, the program would self-destruct and take down the American economy with it?

Now our two senators declare that they would not vote for the House health reform bill, in part because it reduces Medicare expenses. This despite the fact that American senior citizens, through their representative body, AARP, have expressed support for this bill along with American doctors, through their representative body, AMA. This excuse is a bit hard to swallow.

John Boucher, Lincoln