When my brother-in law learned that he and his wife were going to have a baby, they immediately began involving the family in all kinds of activities in preparation. This living microscopic being added tremendously to the family dynamic. Baby paraphernalia was set aside, names were suggested; the date and time of my niece's birth became a lively guessing game. A very moving announcement about the pending arrival showed baby's first picture that looked no better than snow on an erratic television channel, but was clearly more than a clump of cells.

So I urge us to view Proposition 71, the Embryo Cloning and Stem-Cell Research Bond Act, with extreme caution. I say this as one of those with a disability, one of those caught in the stem cell research debate, one of those for whom Prop 71 supposedly holds hope.

When animals eat their young, we cringe. Yet mutilating and destroying human embryos for curative or research purposes is "eating our young," under a different label. Human embryos are routinely discarded, primarily because our society has dehumanized them through the practice of abortion (they should, at the least, be given decent burials). Now, with scientists proposing they be used for possibly treating severe disabilities, there is passionate rhetoric for "recycling" these poor tiny human beings.

As a disabled person who survived polio and cancer, I would not feel right were these tiny babies mutilated and manipulated for the remote or even immediate possibility that I might walk someday. Sure, I would love to be able to walk and not have to depend on my motorized chair for ambulation; I would sleep better at night if I did not have to strap my unwieldy nose mask to my face so I can better breathe with my respirator.

But just because science and technology are there does not mean we should use them without guidance. We are human beings, not animals.

Adult stem cell research, seen in the entire context of science and ethics, is a better method because the adult gives consent to the scrutiny of his or her stem cells. No one is getting hurt; no one is benefiting at the expense of another's life.

The serpent who enticed Eve with the apple in the Garden of Eden, promising, "And you will not die," is sorely tempting us today with the promise of a cure. Are we rushing into biting this "apple" because of the terribly tempting possibility that perhaps these little embryos, whose lives we have deemed expendable, might cure us of every disability in the world? Does a world completely devoid of disability truly make the ideal society?

Amid this changing technological landscape, what does not change is the phenomenon of human life coming to be, whether its genesis is in the womb or on the Petri dish. It is life that must be protected.

Prop 71: Modern slavery

By Valerie Cronn

The Golden State is about to become a little more tarnished.

Many Californians pride themselves on the state's "progressive" social attitudes. Why, then, is this forward-thinking state standing on the verge of reinstating slavery in the 21st century? It's rather creepy and chilling when we live in a world where it's even suggested that we create human beings for the sole purpose of using them for spare parts, murdering them in the process.

That's exactly what Proposition 71 is about. It would allow "somatic cell nuclear transfer," a process in which the nucleus of an egg cell is removed and replaced with the nucleus of another cell. Following a Frankensteinian jolt of electrical current, cell division begins. If successful --- and in the lab, that has proven to be a big if --- the resulting embryo is a clone of the donor.

Proposition 71 is not about technological progress, or a nobler good, or saving or improving a multitude of lives worldwide, despite what its proponents insist. Embryonic stem cell experimentation and human cloning have never worked and to date have only created tumors or cancer.

What has worked is use of adult stem cells, which do, in fact, hold great medical promise without any of the ethical taint of embryonic stem cell use. People seeking medical miracles would be well-advised to look toward adult stem cell research. Just recently, for example, a German man whose jaw had been surgically removed due to cancer was able to resume a normal life after doctors used stem cells, easily obtained from his own bone marrow, to grow a brand new jawbone for him.

Even worse than the unwise spending of taxpayer dollars, Proposition 71 will institute de facto slavery. No euphemisms can hide the fact that what is being proposed is nothing less than the wholesale manufacture of thousands, perhaps even millions, of defenseless human beings who will be bred to bring money and fame to a few.

Whether it's labeled "embryo" or "somatic cell nuclear transfer," it means using the tiniest of people, the ones without a voice, at our whim and for our profit. Like slaves in the 19th century, these babies are not being seen as the human lives that they are, but as property.

What better slaves? They can't revolt, they can't even complain or cry loudly enough that we will hear. We fought a civil war, brother against brother, to rid ourselves of slavery. We lost more than half a million lives in that conflict, more than 51,000 at Gettysburg alone, but now we are seriously considering bringing slavery back to California because we are so "broad-minded" and liberal that we have become deaf to the cries of these embryonic slaves.

If you or loved ones are ill, if you are a mother or love a mother, if you are Catholic or not, if you just believe that human life is precious, then I urge you to vote against Proposition 71.

Lillibeth Navarro, a parishioner at Precious Blood Church in Los Angeles, is a disability rights activist and founding director of Communities Actively Living Independent & Free, an independent living center serving the Central Los Angeles area and financed with the help of a Catholic Campaign for Human Development grant. She can be reached at (213) 627-0477, or lnavarro@calif-ilc.org. Valerie Cronn is a parishioner at St. John Eudes Church, Chatsworth.