Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005--Veto Message From the Preisdent of the United Sates (H. Doc No. 109-127)
STEM CELL RESEARCH ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2005--VETO MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (H. DOC. NO. 109-127) -- (House of Representatives - July 19, 2006)
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Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the President's veto of embryonic stem cell legislation flies in the face of the American people's broad support for this bill. In vetoing this bill, the President has gone against more than 70 percent of Americans who support stem cell research using embryos that would otherwise be discarded.
Even worse, he has thumbed his nose at the millions of Americans suffering from incurable diseases. Americans have kept their hopes alive while this administration has played political games and thrown up roadblocks to the promising research that would offer them a cure.
As opposed to legislation we have passed to encourage research on cord blood and adult stem cells, only this bill, the Castle-DeGette bill, would expand research on the embryonic stem cells that have the unique ability to reproduce indefinitely and evolve into any cell type in our bodies.
I have personally seen the potential that this research holds and how it works. Last summer I visited the stem cell labs at the Baylor College of Medicine in my hometown of Houston, where researchers are looking at treatments for heart disease with just a few Federal lines. The message from the researchers I met with was clear. The current policy not only slows medical progress, but will force the world's brightest researchers to abandon the U.S. for countries without this restriction on lifesaving research.
My colleagues opposed to this bill have argued this on moral and religious grounds. They are absolutely right. Regardless of whether one practices Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, every religion in the world tells us to alleviate human suffering.
History has shown, however, that even the most devout have often strayed from this common religious and moral duty. According to the New Testament, religious leaders in Biblical times attacked Jesus for healing the sick on the Sabbath. History has apparently repeated itself, as we have religious leaders today casting similar judgments on the healers of our time. Just like the sick in Biblical times, American families suffering from incurable diseases do not have time for the Federal Government to restrict those who could heal them. To alleviate human suffering, that is the purpose of this bill, and that should be our purpose today.
Let us override this veto.
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