President Bush stated in the second presidential debate, in reference to stem cell research: “To destroy life to save life is one of the real ethical dilemmas that we face.” I would assume this concept of destroying life to save life is the whole rationale for the war in Iraq.

Does this mean then that the value of the human embryo ranks higher on Bush’s scale than the value of a human life? A logical person who starts a war in the vague hope that it will help save more lives than it destroys cannot possibly justify stifling human stem cell research.

Laurie A. Churchill, M.D.

Calais