Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007

Floor Speech

STEM CELL RESEARCH ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2007 -- (Senate - April 10, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CARPER. I thank the Senator.

Mr. President, we have made some truly amazing strides in medical research with the creation of new medicine and mapping the human genome. I think we all agree more can be done and more should be done.

We know stem cells hold promise, and we have an opportunity tomorrow to pass critical legislation that enables us to take some of those next steps in finding treatments and cures for diseases such as Parkinson's, juvenile diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer.

Like, I suspect, every Member of this body, I have my own personal experiences in my family and reasons for supporting stem cell research. My mother passed away about a year and a half ago--almost 2 years ago now. She had, in the last decade or so, been stricken by Alzheimer's disease, dementia. Her mother had lived and died with the same disease. Her grandmother lived and died with the same disease. Her sister may be showing early symptoms of the same disease. My mother's father was a butcher. He worked 5, 6 days a week until he was 81 years old in a little mom-and-pop supermarket in Beckley, WV. His hands would shake. Some would probably think, how many fingers would he lose today while trying to cut up the meat. He never did lose any. He was a great hero to me. I remember watching as Parkinson's took its toll on him, as it has others of our colleagues here and in the House, such as Mo Udall, whom we thought the world of, and still do--but to see what happened to them because of that disease. We lost my uncle in Huntington, WV, last year to a form of cancer which is almost always deadly, pancreatic cancer. Those are only a couple of people in my own life, people who were close to me and people in my family whom we have lost or have seen a serious degradation in the quality of their lives. Some day, I would like to be able to say to my sons, who are 17 and 18, you will never have to worry about Alzheimer's disease because of the research and the kind of work that is made possible in this legislation and what it will do for you. I would like to tell them you will never have to worry about Parkinson's or pancreatic cancer.

Today is about much more than curing diseases. It is also about keeping America's research centers competitive and relevant. The United States has always been a key leader in the prevention and treatment of illnesses. We have developed vaccines and antibiotics that have literally saved millions of lives, and still do. We have made tremendous advances in biotechnology and pharmaceutical research as well. Now we have the opportunity to make a national commitment to expand the frontiers of medical research. Stem cell research is a key part of doing that. I know a lot of us agree. The nation that is able to take stem cell research to the next step and use it to truly understand how our DNA works and then to use that information to help find treatments and cure diseases will be in the driver's seat of medical research worldwide for some time to come.

My friend and fellow Delawarean, Congressman MIKE CASTLE, led the way to expand stem cell research. Last year, he introduced legislation that would allow the NIH to support embryonic stem cell research. Congress passed this bill, thanks to the leadership in no small part of Senator Harkin and others in this body. It was vetoed by the President. I disagree with the President's policy on stem cell research. On this front, I think he is wrong.

This year, several of my colleagues, including my friend Senator Harkin, have introduced legislation very similar to the Castle bill that we passed last year. S. 5, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, would advance stem cell research by expanding the number of stem cell lines that are eligible for Federal funding. It would also strengthen the ethical rules that govern stem cell research--a concern that I know is on many people's minds, including my own.

Under the administration's current policy, the number of stem cell lines available for federally funded research has continued to shrink. There are only 21 cells now available, I am told. What is more, many of the current lines are contaminated or have reached the end of their usefulness.

A gentleman named Dr. Elias Zerhouni, the Director of the National Institutes of Health, recently testified before a Senate panel and made a similar claim that these 21 cell lines the National Institutes of Health has will not be sufficient for the research they need to do at NIH.

S. 5 would allow new lines to be derived from excess in vitro fertilization embryos that would otherwise be discarded. To me, the choice seems clear:
Rather than allowing these embryos to be discarded, destroyed, we can use them to further lifesaving research. They may contribute to saving the lives of our spouses, our brothers and sisters, our parents, our children, or our nieces and nephews. S. 5 would allow new lines to be derived from excess in vitro fertilization embryos that would otherwise be discarded. I know people are concerned about that and they have an ethical dilemma they face. I say to people who have those concerns and may have deeply held beliefs, does it make sense to you that these embryos that have been created in fertility clinics are going to be destroyed at the discretion of whoever was the person who donated the eggs and the sperm that fertilized the egg? Does it make more sense to allow the fertilized eggs to be destroyed or to allow that embryo to be--at the discretion of that husband and wife--used to help preserve and enhance and improve life?

These new stem cell lines would dramatically expand our ability to study and find treatments for a wide range of illnesses. The benefits will come not only from having more 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 close by urging all of our colleagues to join us--a majority of us--in supporting S. 5. It has been made better because the sponsors of the bill have also introduced legislation that, I think, was offered last year by Senators SPECTER and SANTORUM. It is now part of this legislation. It made it better.

We should not wait any longer. If we focus our resources and attention today to find cures, we can save lives--and also save money in the long run. I will close by saying for those who believe this legislation is somehow diverting us from pursuing the use of adult stem cells, or stem cells that may come from umbilical cords, it doesn't do that. We should pursue those paths as well. But we should not close the door on this path; we should pursue this path, too.

To those who brought us to this day, Congressman Castle from Delaware, the sponsors of this bill today, all who have joined in supporting it, and the people in the country who joined us as well, thank you for doing a good thing for a lot of people who need our help.

Source