[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 96 (Thursday, July 1, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1505-E1506]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 RESEARCH DEBATE DESERVES OUR ATTENTION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. HENRY J. HYDE

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, July 1, 1999

  Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, John Kass, a columnist with the Chicago 
Tribune has written another important article on a sensitive subject, 
fetal research. I urge my colleagues to read it carefully.

                [From the Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1999]

         Research Debate Tackles New World Some Dare Not Brave

                             (By John Kass)

       A discussion begins in Washington on Thursday. It's not 
     about sex or money. It's not about scandals or interest rates 
     or war.
       So it might not get the media coverage it deserves.
       But it could be the most important debate of our 
     generation. It will determine whether we're going to make it 
     easy on ourselves to make a bargain with science and the 
     future.
       Depending on how it comes out and what we settle for, it 
     will determine what kind of human beings we will become, as 
     science moves quicker than our ability to understand its 
     consequences, in areas from human cloning to fetal stem cell 
     research.
       And it will answer a question:
       Is it right to take human beings and process them as 
     resources to benefit other human beings?
       About 100 doctors and scientists have signed a statement 
     from the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity to oppose 
     something horrible--embryonic and fetal stem cell research, 
     which uses aborted children and viable fertilized embryos to 
     develop cures for some diseases such as Parkinson's and 
     Alzheimer's.
       At the news conference, the doctors are being joined by 
     U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, the joined by U.S. Sen. Sam 
     Brownback, the Republican from Kansas, who is expected to 
     lead a fight against changes in federal policy that now 
     allows the research.
       The National Institutes of Health already supports and 
     finances the research using fetuses. Now, the NIH wants to 
     use embryos too.
       Among those opposing the research is former U.S. Surgeon 
     General C. Everett Koop.
       Some scientists argue that they need the human 
     ``material,'' as they call it, to study how the mind works, 
     in order to attack the horrible diseases.
       But doctors who have signed the document say that's wrong. 
     Stem cell research on brain diseases is in its early stages, 
     and there are other means to grow the cells to attack brain 
     diseases.
       Sen. Brownback said it is important to realize that the 
     ethical line of using human life for stem cell research need 
     not be crossed.
       ``For those who say there are moral and ethical issues on 
     the other side, who say we have the moral responsibility to 
     solve diseases like Parkinson's, I say, look at the other 
     possibilities that we have,'' Brownback said Wednesday in an 
     interview.
       ``We don't have to give up on solving Parkinson's. We have 
     other ways of doing it. And that seems to be a prudent way to 
     proceed,'' he said. ``It's almost every week that another 
     study comes out about advances in adult stem cell research. 
     Let's not get into the situation where you go into all these 
     legal and ethical issues--you'd have enormous ethical and 
     moral issues here, and you shouldn't jump into it.''
       The debate over the use of fetal brain tissue in 
     experiments was touched on in this space Monday. And I could 
     hear the angry howling.
       I'm not opposing science, or research, or organ donation, 
     or any other reasonable practice. Organ donors offer their 
     consent to have their bodies used by science.
       But aborted children don't have that opportunity. They're 
     not asked to give their consent. And they are used in stem 
     cell research to help adults fight brain diseases.
       Fifty years ago, the Nuremberg war crimes trials led the 
     world to promise never to use human life in scientific 
     experiments without consent. But now we're changing our 
     minds, in order to win a scientific benefit.
       And we cannot make a political deal on this issue without 
     publicly and fully discussing the consequences of such 
     selfish thinking.
       Some people argue that to oppose this research is to 
     condemn people with Parkinson's to death.
       U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) thinks so. Though we 
     disagree on this issue, he should be heard too.
       ``I think this is valuable research,'' Durbin said. ``We 
     have to set up safeguards that will keep it from becoming 
     commercialized. The important thing about these (fetal) 
     neural cells is that they may be able to help in cases that 
     we can do nothing about now, conditions like that which keep 
     Christopher Reeve in a wheelchair.''
       But there are other ways to obtain stem cells, according to 
     the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity. And even if there 
     weren't other ways, using human babies and embryos should not 
     be allowed.

[[Page E1506]]

       Stem cells can be obtained from the living human nerve 
     tissues of consenting adults and from adult cadavers, 
     according to researchers. Like the fetal stem cell research, 
     all of this is experimental.
       Here's one reason why the fetuses and embryos are used. 
     It's easier. They're available.
       And that's the problem.
       Because it is easy, and because there is promise in the 
     research, we might be willing--through small steps we don't 
     even notice at the time--to barter something away.
       Our humanity.

       

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