[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12960]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                FUND ADULT STEM CELL RESEARCH GENEROUSLY

  (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, we must have stem cell research. Alzheimer's, 
Parkinson's and diabetes, these are all very serious diseases that have 
no cures. But our research must be ethical. Adult stem cell research 
holds the most promise for finding cures.
  We should fund adult stem cell research, and fund it generously, but 
not embryonic stem cell research. Creating human embryos for research, 
experimentation, harvesting and destruction is not ethical. Killing one 
human life, even though very tiny, on the off chance of maybe one day 
saving another, is not ethical, moral, and, I should add, even legal to 
do with taxpayer money.
  Since 1996, our laws ban government funding of research that involves 
killing human embryos. We should keep that ban. Now we have a study 
that shows that embryonic stem cells may be too unstable to be of much 
use anyway, unless they are produced in huge numbers. But there is no 
such evidence that adult stem cells are unstable.
  Adult stem cell research holds great promise. Adult stem cell 
research promises to help us find cures to diseases that have plagued 
mankind for centuries. Let us fund adult stem cell research, and fund 
it generously.

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