Matthew Holz had a great Thanksgiving spending time with his family. And he is looking forward to spending time with them again at Christmas.

But the picture once was much different for 48-year-old Holz, who was dying this summer from Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system.

Due to a complication, "I was put on a ventilator, and they didn’t expect me to live through the weekend," said the missionary and member of the First Evangelical Free Church of St. Louis.

Miraculously, Holz’s health turned around, and he is on the path to regaining his strength. One way in which he has been able to improve his health was through a transplant in October using blood stem cells from his own body.

The transplant was the second for Holz, who was re-diagnosed with his illness in 2005. He also underwent a similar transplant in July 1996.

Holz said that blood was drawn from his body through a port in his chest, and healthy stem cells were extracted from the blood donation. The cells were frozen, and Holz said he then went through a high dose of chemotherapy before the cells were thawed and reintroduced into his body.

Holz noted that it was important that his stem-cell treatment came from a source that didn’t involve the destruction of human life. He said he agrees with the Catholic Church’s position that research and treatments using embryonic stem cells is immoral.

"In my opinion, there are too many other sources for stem cells that we have to be taking them from fetuses," said Holz.

"If it had come down to saying, ‘OK, you can’t use your stem cells, but here’s (cells from a destroyed embryo),’ there wouldn’t have been a decision to have made then," he said. "We wouldn’t have gone through with it. We would have sought alternative sources of treatment."

Holz said he believes self-donation transplants are becoming more common for people with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

"The first time, I had gone through all of the treatment options that were available at the time," said Holz. "And they determined that (the transplant) would be probably one of the better ways to put this in some form of remission — so we went ahead with it.

"This time, I was diagnosed in May, and (the transplant) was talked about from the beginning as part of the regimen of treatment — not as a last resort, but as part of it."

Holz said he is not at full strength but is confident that he will be "back up to speed" within the next month. He noted he is going to need that strength in his work of helping to establish evangelical churches in Russia, where he and his wife, Theresa, have been missionaries for the last two years.

"We’re pretty much planning churches — working with the nationals in equipping and training them," he said. "It’s really difficult to be here and realize that our (Russian) friends are back overseas."

Holz said that with the approval of his doctor, he is planning to make a short business trip to Russia in February and hopes to return for a longer stay by next fall.

"It’s been nice to be back with family and friends here," said Holz, who together with his wife, have two adult children from previous marriages, two biological children ages 12 and 11, and an 8-year-old adopted from India. "But when you know that you’re called to do something ... We’re just viewing this as a little hiccup in the road here."

Noting the television commercials featuring former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, who has voiced his support for an amendment to the Missouri Constitution protecting embryonic stem-cell research and certain forms of human cloning, Holz said he has a hard time making the connection that Danforth is pro-life but is willing to allow the destruction of embryos.

"I just have a hard time understanding how you can know the Word of God and be willing to sacrifice a little one for research sake," he said. He added that the problem lies even deeper than understanding the Bible, but also includes understanding science.

"My sister, who has fought muscular dystrophy for 20 years, really said it really well one morning. We had breakfast together, and she said, ‘You know, until we as a country determine when life begins, we really can’t make any of these other decisions,’" Holz recalled.

"She believes and I believe that life begins at conception, but until you make that law, then everybody feels they have right to do with the fetus what they want to do with it," he said. "I’m not saying that’s right; I’m saying that’s definitely wrong, but it leaves a whole lot of room for ambiguity in there."

The above article was written by Jennifer Brinker and appeared in the St. Louis Review on December 9, 2005.