[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 100 (Wednesday, July 18, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H4119]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           STEM CELL RESEARCH

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, last week we said that we should fund adult 
stem cell research and we should fund it generously. For diseases like 
Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, or serious illnesses that have no 
cures, at least not yet, stem cell research holds a lot of promise. But 
we should be doing ethical stem cell research, and that means not using 
stem cells from human embryos. Adult umbilical and placental stem cell 
research holds a great deal of promise, but killing human embryos is 
wrong.
  Look at this picture of Mark and Luke Borden. These brothers were 
frozen human embryos soon after they were conceived. Some scientists 
may have liked to have taken them as embryos and destroyed them so they 
could harvest the stem cells, but the Borden family adopted them 
instead.
  As human embryos, these little boys were implanted in the womb of 
their adopted mother where they matured into babies and were born just 
like any other children. Now they are happy and healthy growing boys. 
Mark and Luke Borden have the same right to live as any other children. 
No one doubts that now. We should not have doubted it when they were 
human embryos either.

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