They Will Not Just Die Anyway

THEY WILL NOT JUST DIE ANYWAY -- (House of Representatives - May 11, 2005)

(Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, some time this summer, the House will vote on a bill to allow Federal funds to be used to destroy embryos stored at IVF clinics in order to harvest their stem cells. Those voting for this legislation will say that these are leftover embryos. They will say they are going to be killed anyway.

Well, they are wrong. Only 2.8 percent of embryos in IVF clinics have been set aside for research; the rest are destined for implantation or adoption.

But, we do not need to kill these embryos to do stem cell research. Stem cells can be taken from many adult sources: fatty tissue, spleen, liver, sinus, bone marrow, just to name a few. These are called adult stem cells.

Adult stem cell research is currently treating 58 diseases successfully. Embryonic stem cell research is treating none: 58, adult stem cell; zero, embryonic stem cell. If there were no ethical alternative, which there is, if we applied "they are going to die anyway" rationale to other areas of research, it would justify such things as harvesting organs from death-row inmates and from terminally ill patients.

We should support adult stem cell research, not embryonic.

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