[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 96 (Wednesday, July 11, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H3871]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   WE MUST ALLOW FEDERAL FUNDING FOR LIFE-SAVING EMBRYONIC STEM CELL 
                                RESEARCH

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, throughout time people have resisted 
scientific advancement. History is replete with the examples of 
fundamentalist religious leaders issuing scientific decisions based on 
absolutely no evidence.
  It is deja vu all over again today with this current administration 
as they inject politics into the single most promising medical research 
of the century. The Bush administration is unfortunately not committed 
to research that would hasten medical discoveries, but rather, to hold 
science hostage to the Catholic vote.
  Carl Rove, the President's chief political adviser, is concerned 
about the views of the Catholic Church because the Catholic voters are 
seen as a swing vote in the elections. This administration has degraded 
medical research and the tremendous potential of embryonic stem cell 
research into an anti-abortion vote.
  The White House is currently reviewing the matter. In other words, 
they are looking at the polls. ``A responsible leader,'' and this is a 
quote, ``is someone who makes decisions based upon principles, not 
based upon polls or focus groups.'' The New York Times reminds us that 
President Bush said those words a few days before Election Day. Perhaps 
he needs to be reminded.
  Without a microscope, one cannot even see what this debate is all 
about. The center of the controversy is a microscopic cluster of cells 
stored in test tubes like this one. It is smaller than the period at 
the end of a sentence.
  When Orrin Hatch says he can tell the difference between cells in the 
test tube and those in a woman's body, then we know that this is a 
nonsense argument. We should continue this research.

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