Moral use of stem cells helps New York woman halt her cancer

Published: 2005-12-19

ALBANY, N.Y. (CNS) -- Opponents of embryonic stem-cell research often point out that using adult stem cells to treat disease is morally acceptable and has shown results. Pat Picher of Saratoga Springs believes she's living proof of that. Diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1999, she was treated with adult stem cells harvested from her own body. In January, she will celebrate three years of remission from her cancer -- the benchmark after which doctors predict that cancer will not return. "Then I'll start planning my trip to Hawaii," Picher said in an interview with The Evangelist, Albany diocesan newspaper. She is a homemaker whose husband, Deacon Gary Picher, serves at two parishes and two hospitals in the Albany Diocese.

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