[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 96 (Wednesday, July 11, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H3869]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CHOOSING TO BE RELEVANT TO SCIENCE

  (Mr. WU asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, stem cell research offers the prospect for cures 
for diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease. It 
is a development of such great historic significance that I want to 
hearken back to another era when science was under threat from a 
theocracy.
  About 400 years ago, Galileo Galilee was forced to recant the 
evidence of his eyes that the moons and the planets revolved around 
each other rather than all of them revolving around the Earth, as the 
church then insisted that we all believe. But even as the theocracy 
forced Galileo to recant his views, he was heard to mutter, ``But the 
planets do move.''
  Mr. Speaker, just as the planets move, stem cell research will go 
forward. The only question is whether it goes forward in this country 
or in foreign countries; with government support or without government 
support; subject to NIH guidelines or subject to no ethical guidelines 
whatsoever.
  Our choice here is not about stem cell research or not. Just as no 
theocracy can prevent the planets from moving, no theocracy can prevent 
stem cell research from going on. The only choice is whether we choose 
to be relevant to science.

                          ____________________