TESTIMONY
OF PATRICIA PAYNE
TO THE
COMONWEALTH OF
JOINT
COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
AND
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
AGAINST
SB 25 - AN ACT PROMOTING STEM CELL RESEARCH
State
House, Boston,
I
am here accompanied by Richard, my husband of 40 years, and wish to speak to you:
I
want to state in the strongest terms that I am committed to using only good medicine in
pursuit of a cure for my disease. As you can
see, I am suffering immensely from my Parkinson’s, and from the bone disintegration
around my lower spine, which floods my whole body with constant pain. How I want to
relieve my suffering; especially of the body which I carefully conditioned for years as a
classical dancer. But my suffering isn’t the real issue! The real issue is what we
are being asked to do in the hope of relieving our suffering. In Embryonic Stem Cell
research, an embryonic human being is sacrificed in order to get a hold of embryonic stem
cells. I don’t want to see cures, even a cure for my terrible disease, to be obtained
by destroying a fellow human being at their earliest and most vulnerable stage of their
existence.
We
have been led to believe that only embryonic stem cells have shown any promise in treating
human disease. This is false! The truth is - Adult Stem Cells have treated and cured
literally tens of thousands of people with almost 100 different diseases. How many people
have been cured of ANY disease using Embryonic Stem Cells? The answer is ZERO! NONE! Instead, the history of Embryonic Stem Cell
research is replete with monstrous tumors, tissue rejections, and immune reactions.
Parkinson’s
disease is associated with a progressive cell-loss of mid-brain dopamine-secreting
neurons. Mature neurons derived from a patient’s own brain tissue can be multiplied
and transplanted back to the brain safely, greatly diminishing Parkinsonian symptoms. Soon
I will participate in Phase Two of Dr. Michel Levesque’s FDA approved and
dramatically successful Adult Stem Cell research and therapy program. Dr. Levesque is a
world-renowned specialist in Parkinson’s, a physician, neuroscientist and
neurosurgeon based at
We
have to revere and protect human life, in all
its forms, especially in its smallest, most hidden and most vulnerable of forms.
My
husband edited the famous worldwide classic-best-seller entitled “Hope for the
Flowers”, an illustrated fable describing the metamorphosis of a caterpillar becoming
a butterfly. Remember that even though caterpillars look nothing like butterflies, that
without caterpillars there would be no butterflies. You and I were once caterpillar like. We were embryos. All of our children were once
embryos. There is a universal moral law, which transcends history and culture, and is a
characteristic principle of high civilization. It
is that “the end does not justify the means.” To kill one human being for
the benefit of another is never morally justifiable. To kill the weak in order to benefit
the strong is even more objectionable. Please choose a good, not an evil means for helping
those who suffer. The choice is not between science and ethics, but between a science that
is ethically responsible and a science that is not. I pray that you will do GOD’S
WILL and choose life and good medicine rather than
death and evil medicine.