ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Is Not Pro-Life, But Can Be

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ASL) commonly known as Lou Gherig's Disease, is a fatal neuromuscular disease that presently has no cure. No ALS patient is alike. Some people experience a slow degeneration, while others experience a more rapid degeneration of the motor neurons in their brain and spinal cord that disperse messages to allow voluntary muscle function throughout their body. Variant rates of motor neuron degeneration allows for patients diagnosed with ALS to live anywhere from three to five years after diagnoses.



Many people are taking the "ALS Ice Bucket Challenge". I think this is a fun and fantastic way to promote awareness and garner financial support to help people afflicted with ALS, as well as finance research to find a cure.

A good way to accomplish this is to support organizations like Team Gleason. This organization was founded by Steve Gleason, former NFL player and current ALS braveheart. Their mission is to "Help provide individuals with neuromuscular diseases or injuries with leading edge technology, equipment and services. Create a global conversation about ALS to ultimately find solutions and an end to the disease. Raise public awareness toward ALS by providing and documenting extraordinary life adventures for individuals with muscular diseases or injuries."

Team Gleason partners with many organizations to accomplish their mission and one of them is Cord Blood Registry (CBR). Organizations like CBR only collect, store and use stem cells from the umbilical cords of newborn babies rather than harvest them from the helpless bodies of aborted, unborn babies.

A not so good way to promote awareness and support for ALS is to donate to the ALS Association. Though ALS Association promotes the betterment of current ALS patients and research to help find a cure, they do not promote or encourage the betterment of all life; specifically, precious and innocent unborn babies.

The ALS Association offers grants to many research organizations and one of them is the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS).


On the NEALS website, they state, "These stem cells have been engineered from the spinal cord of a single fetus electively aborted after eight weeks of gestation. The tissue was obtained with the mother's consent."

The extraction of stem cells from unborn babies is completely unnecessary for this or any research. There are many other options for stem cell research where the opportunity to live is not callously stripped away from a precious innocent baby.

I wholeheartedly support and encourage more prayer and awareness for ALS patients and their families to: acquire expensive equipment, obtain exemplary medical care and look forward to research that may discover a cure for this fatal disease.

As a Christian, I unashamedly stand for life...all life.

Because I am an image-bearer of the Creator and because He so graciously granted me the gift of repentance that leads to life-giving faith in Jesus Christ, I desire nothing less for any other human being—whether they reside inside or outside the womb.

All life is precious and all life should be protected, supported and allowed to maintain the quality of life we all desire.