Stem Cells: Levin Floor Speech Urging the President to Lift Restrictions on Vital Research: 04/12/07
Mr. President, in the previous Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives voted resoundingly to lift the President’s burdensome restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. The President, however, used the first – and so far only – veto of his administration to reject this potentially life-giving research, which is supported by a clear majority of the American people. We are here today to try again to give our scientists the tools they need as they work to cure some of the most debilitating and dreaded diseases, and we will not yield until we remove the obstacles the President has put in their way.
This fight is critical, because embryonic stem cell research could hold the key to curing diseases that no other research could cure. As best we know now, an embryonic stem cell is unique in nature: it alone can develop into any other type of cell in the body. Embryonic stems cells – and embryonic stem cells alone – can become a nerve cell, a muscle cell, or any of the more than 200 types of cells in the body. The promise of this unique ability is clear: if scientists could replace diseased cells with healthy cells created from embryonic stem cells, it would save an untold number of lives.
For example, Parkinson’s disease is a motor system disorder that results from a loss of brain cells that produce dopamine. Individuals with Parkinson’s disease often experience a trembling in the hands, arms or face and impaired balance and coordination. As the disease develops, it can become difficult to walk, talk, and complete other basic tasks. With research, scientists may be able to coax embryonic stem cells into becoming healthy neurons that produce the desperately-needed dopamine. And if those neurons can be successfully transplanted into a patient with Parkinson’s disease, that person could be cured.
The list of diseases that could benefit from stem cell research is long – Alzheimer’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, juvenile diabetes, spinal cord injuries and many others. Stem cell research could offer the millions of Americans suffering from these diseases not just hope but cures.
Supporters of stem cell research understand that these breakthroughs will not be easy or inevitable. But the President’s policy makes them far less likely. On August 21, 2001, President Bush issued an executive order that the federal government would only fund embryonic stem cell research on stem cell lines created before that date. “Stem cell line” is the name given to constantly-dividing cells that continue to be derived from a single embryo.
Most independent experts estimated at the time of the President’s executive order that about 80 stem cell lines – a woefully inadequate amount – would be available for federal research. Most of those lines were later determined to be polluted and unusable, leaving only about 20 stem cell lines available.
Last month, the Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Elias Zerhouni was asked during testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education whether “scientists have a better chance of finding new cures [and] new interventions for diseases if the current restriction on embryonic stem cell research were lifted.” Dr. Zerhouni responded: “these cell lines will not be sufficient to do all the research we need to do… these cell lines have exhibited instability from the genetic standpoint and it’s not possible for me to see how we can continue the momentum of science in stem cell research with the cell lines that we have currently at NIH that can be funded. It is clear today that American science would be better served and the nation would be better served if we let our scientists have access to more cell lines.”
In issuing his executive order and in vetoing the bill we passed last year, the President did not question the scientific possibilities of stem cell research. In fact, he said the opposite. He stated in 2001: “Scientists believe further research using stem cells offers great promise that could help improve the lives of those who suffer from many terrible diseases.”
The President’s objection is to using embryos for research. But the key fact – and one that opponents refuse to deal with – is that any embryo not used for stem cell research is going to be destroyed anyway. The embryos created by fertilization clinics that are not going to be used for implantation will be destroyed. Why not give them a life-giving use then? No answer has been forthcoming from the President.
Rand Health conducted a study in 2003 that found there were approximately 400,000 embryos in storage in the United States and some of these embryos will never be used because parents either had a successful pregnancy and no longer need them or because treatments were unsuccessful. In addition, the study found that only 2 percent of these embryos will be used to create pregnancies. Many will be discarded.
Last year, the Detroit News editorialized against a Michigan law restricting embryonic stem cell research and used words that apply equally well to the President’s policy. The News wrote: “The justification for this law is to protect human embryos, but the fact that fertility clinics can simply discard them means that the research ban is pointless.” Sean Morrison, director of the University of Michigan’s Center for Stem Cell Biology and one of the country’s leading stem cell researchers, agrees. In an article in the Ann Arbor News last month, Dr. Morrison stated: “The thing about that that’s crazy is human embryos are discarded all the time by fertility clinics… So it’s legal to throw them away, but it’s not legal to use them to try to help somebody.”
Embryonic stem cell research is truly a life-giving process because of the extraordinary potential for healing living, breathing human beings, human beings with names and faces and families. Members of the House of Representatives have now passed the bipartisan Stem Cell Research and Enhancement Act, H.R.3. After we debate the companion bill, S.5, I hope we too will again adopt it and remove the President’s arbitrary prohibition against funding stem cell research on embryos. It will pave the way for hundreds or thousands of additional stem cell lines to be made available.
This bill has the strong support of the American Medical Association, the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, the Association of American Universities, the Christopher Reeve Foundation, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Parkinson’s Action Network, and more than 500 additional organizations. And, more importantly, it has the overwhelming support of the American people. If the President again vetoes this bill, I hope Congress will override that veto.
As part of the unanimous consent agreement to consider this legislation, we are considering an additional bill as well. Senators Coleman and Isakson introduced a bill that promotes stem cell research limited to those stem cells obtained from “naturally dead” embryos. These embryos are called “naturally dead” because they are unable to divide and reproduce like other embryos. While we should pursue all types of research, I do not believe we should limit stem cell research to stem cells that may be flawed, as indicated by their inability to reproduce and divide.
Mr. President, embryonic stem cell research holds enormous promise for healing and saving individuals who suffer from debilitating diseases and injuries. It is our responsibility to pursue those cures and treatments in an ethical manner. In order for our scientists to do quality research and make advances in medicine, they must have access to embryonic stem cells that are uncontaminated and viable for research, especially since they will otherwise be destroyed. S. 5 will allow our scientists to move forward to a new generation of potentially life-saving cures. It deserves the support of this body.