Hope Offered Through Principled And Ethical Stem Cell Resaearch Act--Continued--
Floor Speech
HOPE OFFERED THROUGH PRINCIPLED AND ETHICAL STEM CELL RESEARCH ACT--Continued -- (Senate - April 11, 2007)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first, I rise in strong and profound praise of my colleague from Iowa. He has led this fight dauntlessly, always being both dogged and smart. That is why we are where we are today.
I rise in support of S. 5, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. Today, as we stand on the brink of scientific breakthroughs, we cannot let politics pull us backward. A modern nation loses its greatness, its preeminence, when it turns its back on science. That is what history has shown.
Stem cell research is the key to hope for 100 million Americans and their families who suffer from debilitating diseases. Talk about it any way you want, spin it any way you want, talk about all these alternatives; the bottom line is very simple: A ``no'' vote is a vote against science, a vote against the millions who are anxiously awaiting a cure for diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, spinal cord injuries and other diseases and injuries.
Unfortunately, we all know someone with a disease such as diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson's, ALS or cancer who could benefit from embryonic stem cell research. Every one of us has looked into the eyes of somebody who needs help--in my case, a young mother with a little girl about 5 years old who had juvenile diabetes who said: Senator, the doctors tell me the odds are high that my child could be blind at age 20 if we don't do embryonic stem cell research. How can we say no to that mother and to that child? Scientists are on the cusp of making incredible progress through stem cell research, a process that has the potential to cure diseases that have been with us for centuries, such as diabetes and heart disease.
When their progress was stalled in 2001 when President Bush limited federally funded stem cell research to only 19 sources that are truly viable, every family who had hope was set back. With that Executive order, the President shut the door on hope for all those families.
With that one action, the President not only stopped current research in its tracks, he sent a message to future scientists that they should not pursue this line of work.
As they see a limited funding stream for the work they do, fewer and fewer graduates are specializing in this type of research, and those who are deeply committed to it tend to go overseas. That is not a great America--an America that turns its back on science and puts politics in its place. We want all the best minds in the country to be working together to find a cure for these debilitating diseases.
S. 5 would answer the prayers of millions of families. It would increase the number of stem cell lines that can be used by researchers who are funded by Federal grants.
These stem cell lines are not made from new embryos that would be created for the purpose of research. They would not be harvested from women, like some people think. These lines would be made from leftover embryos created by couples who were trying to conceive through in vitro fertilization but are not used and are going to be destroyed. With passage of this bill, those embryos could contribute to critical research instead of being thrown away.
Let's think about the good that having these new stem cells could do by looking at juvenile diabetes. As many as 3 million Americans have Type I diabetes, with over 13,000 children newly diagnosed each year. These children must be injected with insulin multiple times each day and prick their fingers to test their blood sugar as many as six times a day.
That doesn't have to be the reality forever. Researchers have already demonstrated they can produce insulin-producing cells from undifferentiated embryonic stem cells. This has the real potential to develop a cure for juvenile diabetes, providing relief to the 3 million Americans and their families who are burdened with the implications of the disease every day.
Without being able to use Federal funding for their research, innovative stem cell research is being relegated more and more to only those individuals and institutions that can afford it.
Because NIH-funded research activities have to be housed in different buildings from stem cell research labs, which has created enormous headaches and financial barriers for researchers in my State of New York and has hampered both research on stem cells and research using other methods, unless we vote yes on S. 5, we are not going to make progress.
This bill would provide enormous hope to growing numbers of Americans. It would accelerate the movement toward a cure for devastating diseases, while strengthening the rules on ethics that must be involved in this research. This is one of those issues that hits home more than anything else. Everyone knows a mother with Alzheimer's or a neighbor with diabetes. They are gut-wrenching situations.
What is most heartbreaking is to think the President's first veto was to stop us from alleviating all this terrible pain. I urge my colleagues to look into the eyes of a young child with juvenile diabetes, look into the eyes of a middle-aged couple who has a parent suffering from Alzheimer's. Don't say no to them.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source