Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006

FETUS FARMING PROHIBITION ACT OF 2006 -- (Senate - July 18, 2006)

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Mr. CARPER. I thank my colleague for yielding. I am moved by the comments of Senator Lincoln, and I suspect we could go throughout the Senate Chamber from desk to desk, from Member to Member, and each of us could tell a personal story from our own family as moving as I found her description of the life of her father.

In my own family, my grandfather, a wonderful role model as a butcher from West Virginia, had Parkinson's disease. He got up every morning and drove through the mountain roads to the butcher shop to cut meat. Every day I would watch him leave the House, his hands shaking, fingers shaking, wondering if he was going to chop one off, and he never did in all the years that he ran that butcher shop.

I think of the time, looking at Senator Harkin and myself and some others in the Chamber who served in the House, we served with Mo Udall. I remember riding back and forth on the subway between the House buildings, the Rayburn Building, riding over to the Senate Chamber with Mo Udall and watching his body slowly deteriorate. I think of Ford King, my brother in law, now deceased, who was controlled by ALS over a decade or so ago and watching his life slowly fade away as ALS took its toll on him. I think of Alzheimer's and my own mom who passed away last year, her mom who was a victim of Alzheimer's, and the millions of others who die from that disease in our country.

I think of my own healthy sons, thank God, 16 and 18 years of age, and I think of their friends having to prick their bodies or their fingers several times a day, as much as 10 times a day, to take insulin shots and know that is the way they are going to have to live for the rest of their life.

Today is a day of tremendous opportunity.

It is an opportunity to push for the kind of medical research that will make a difference in the lives of the people--not the people I just mentioned, unfortunately, for the most part, but in the lives of their children and their grandchildren. It is an opportunity to help find treatment for diseases such as the ones I mentioned, Parkinson's disease and juvenile diabetes and autoimmune disorders and heart disease and even, if we are lucky, cancer.

We know that stem cells hold great promise. Already stem cells have been used to help paralyzed rats regain the ability to move. Stem cells have been converted into motor neurons which could help treat spinal cord injuries or Lou Gehrig's disease--ALS.

Stem cells have also been coaxed into becoming brain cells to one day help patients with Parkinson's disease, such as my own grandfather, such as our old colleague, Mo Udall.

Today, though, is about more than just curing diseases. It is also about keeping America's research centers competitive and relevant. Stem cell research is likely to be an important area of science and medicine for a long time to come. Instead of treading water, as we have done under President Bush's stem cell policy, America should be leading the way and making other countries play catchup, instead of us playing catchup to them.

We have done this in the past. The United States has always been a valuable contributor to the prevention and treatment of illness. We have developed vaccines and antibiotics that have saved literally millions of lives. We have made tremendous advances in the areas of biotechnology and pharmaceutical research.

Now we have an opportunity to make a national commitment to expand the frontiers of medical research once again.

If we focus our resources and attention today to find cures, we will save lives, and we will save money in the long run.

H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act which is before us today, was introduced in the House of Representatives by my own Congressman, MIKE CASTLE. Here in the Senate, it has been shepherded by two of our finest colleagues, Senator Specter and TOM HARKIN of Iowa. This bill would greatly expand our ability to take the next steps in stem cell research by expanding the number of stem lines eligible for Federal funding. It would also strengthen the ethical rules that govern stem cell research.

Under the administration's current policy, the number of stem cell lines available for federally funded research has continued to shrink. There are now, I am told, only 22 lines available. What is more, many of those current lines are contaminated or have reached the end of their useful life.

The Castle bill would allow new lines to be derived from excess in vitro fertilization embryos that would otherwise be thrown away. The choice seems clear, at least to me and I know to a lot of people in my State. Rather than allow these embryos to be discarded and thrown away, with the consent of the couple who want to donate those embryos, with their permission, we can use those embryos to further lifesaving research.

These new stem cell lines will dramatically expand our ability to study and find treatments for a wide range of illnesses. The benefits will come not only from having more stem cell lines but from having better lines. By expanding our research policy, we can create stem cell lines that help us study specific diseases or create specific treatments.

I urge all our colleagues to support H.R. 810. I know there are a couple on the brink, who are undecided. They know who they are. I encourage them to listen to the folks from their own States and their own families whose lives could have been enhanced, been lengthened--or in the future will be. Let's vote today to expand stem cell research so we, our children, our grandchildren, and a whole lot of people beyond them can benefit in the future.

http://thomas.loc.gov/