St. Jude Children's Research Hospital And Stem Cell Research

Floor Speech

ST. JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL AND STEM CELL RESEARCH -- (House of Representatives - June 20, 2007)

(Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, Saturday night Memphis, Tennessee, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of ALSAC, which is the fund-raising arm of St. Jude Hospital, an institution of which I am extremely proud.

St. Jude has used science to bring cures to cancer and to fight cancer for children. It is a leading institution in our country. President Bush has a stem cell bill before him that this House and the Senate have passed. It needs his signature to become law.

I plead to the President to allow that bill to become law, as Nancy Reagan has pleaded to the President when she saw her husband suffering from Alzheimer's; as Christopher Reeve pleaded when he had spinal cord injuries and some hope for his future, but didn't see it and died; as people with Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and cancer hope.

Today I speak to you as a victim of polio. I wish we had stem cell research 50 years ago so we could regrow the muscle in my leg, and I would be whole, and I could play on the baseball team that the Congress has going to play next month. But I can't do it.

We didn't have that research. We didn't have stem cells. We have it today. We need to invest it for the people of the 20th century and to cure illness. Please, Mr. President, sign the bill.

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