Liz Haanstad has lived with multiple sclerosis for 30 years. Bob Beshara copes with a much more recent diagnosis of ALS.

But like many people battling incurable illnesses or paralyzing injuries, both were excited Monday when President Barack Obama lifted a ban on federal funding for new embryonic stem cell research, even if the medical therapies it produces don't arrive in time for them.

"I am totally thrilled that he has alleviated that restriction," said Haanstad, of Spearfish. "I don't know that it's going to help my disease, but there are so many people with such horrible diseases - like Huntington's or Parkinson's - that may benefit in the future."

Reversing eight years of Bush administration policy, Obama cleared the way for a significant increase in federal dollars - although how much is unknown - for embryonic stem cell research to be funded through the National Institute of Health. The president promised a new approach to scientific research and that science will not be "distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology."

Opposition to embryonic stem cell research comes from people with ideologies like Kelli McDonald. The Rapid City mother also has a 17-year-old daughter who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 10 years ago. Stem cell therapies hold great hope for the treatment of juvenile diabetes, but the destruction of embryos to procure the stem cells they contain, is morally wrong to McDonald, a Catholic who believes it is the taking of human life.

Bishop Blase Cupich of the Catholic Diocese of Rapid City expressed sadness and disappointment at Obama's directive. That decision "disregards the values of millions of American taxpayers who oppose research that requires taking human life," Cupich said.

Beshara, a Catholic, said his reaction might be considered "ethically incorrect" by his bishop, but losing ground to the same disease that claimed baseball great Lou Gehrig forms his opinions about stem cell research.

"I'm glad that they're doing any kind of research. I think that would be wonderful," he said. Beshara does not believe human embryos should be created specifically for use in stem cell research, but if fertilized eggs from fertility clinics are going to be destroyed, he would rather they be available for research purposes instead of being disposed.

So does Haanstad.

"If they're there anyway, and if they're not going to use them, why not utilize them?" Haanstad asks.

The Rev. Greg Blanc, pastor of Calvary Chapel Community Church says the issue is simple from an ethical standpoint.

"It's never right to take a life to possibly save a life," he said.

Religious viewpoints on embryonic stem cell research vary. Many denominations, including the Episcopal Church and Presbyterian USA, are in favor of it, as long as the embryos would have been destroyed otherwise and were not bought or sold. All Jewish movements support it, as long as it is done for medical or therapeutic purposes. There is no explicit Islamic ruling on the issue, and Muslim leaders are split between those who say an embryo in the early stage of pregnancy does not have a soul and those who argue that the termination of an embryo at any stage of pregnancy is morally impermissible.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America takes no official stance on stem cell research, leaving it up to the consciences of its members. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., a Lutheran, said in a news release that the "life-affirming, moral choice is to support this research. My deeply held religious faith tells me that respect for human life embraces this potentially life-saving research. This has been a long wait, but it's time for this research to move forward."

Like the Catholic Church, The National Association of Evangelicals officially supports adult stem cell research and the development of alternative treatments that don't require the destruction of embryos.

Dr. Ben Perryman, the vice president of research at Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, agrees that research into adult stem cells is "very promising," but said it is incorrect to assume that those cells can replace embryonic stem cells for research purposes.

"We simply do not know at this point that adult stem cells are equivalent to embryonic stem cells," Perryman said.

Embryonic stem cell research is not legal in South Dakota and at least five other states. In 2000, the state Legislature prohibited the "nontherapeutic research that destroys a human embryo" or research which subjects an embryo to "substantial risk of injury or death."

That state law puts researchers at Sanford Health and other South Dakota institutions "at somewhat of a competitive disadvantage," said Perryman. Numerous other approaches to diabetes research continue at Sanford, but none in embryonic stem cells.

Meanwhile, Haanstad, who walks with a cane, continues to take daily medication to reduce the severity of her MS exacerbations and to increase the time between them. And she holds out great hope for the promise of stem cells, which she believes will someday be able to "cure anything."

Perryman hopes so, too, but said that timeline is impossible to know or to predict.

"I have no idea … you have to be very, very carefully about those kinds of predictions," he said.

Contact Mary Garrigan at 394-8424 or mary.garrigan@rapidcityjournal.com