[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 14616-14617]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           STEM CELL RESEARCH

  Mr. DURBIN. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Speaking on the 
minority side, I would like to say that we face a historic vote today 
on stem cell research. This is a vote that millions of Americans are 
watching. People who are suffering from diabetes, Parkinson's, 
Alzheimer's, spinal cord injuries, they can't understand why America, 
for the last 5 years, has shut down medical research that promises 
hope--hope for cures. They can't understand that the President of the 
United States made the decision--almost unprecedented in our history--
to close down medical research. He didn't do it absolutely, and that is 
the curious thing.
  If this is a question of being driven by moral values, I don't 
understand how the President could conclude that using existing stem 
cell lines, 78 of them, is permissible, but using 1 more is immoral. I 
don't follow his logic. Frankly, I don't believe it is logical.
  What we have before us is an opportunity to move forward on stem cell 
research with very strict ethical guidelines. We have a choice: Will we 
take these thousands of stem cells--which, frankly, will be discarded 
as waste and surplus--will we allow that to happen or use them in a 
laboratory to give a 12-year-old girl suffering from juvenile diabetes 
a chance for a normal, happy life?
  Will we use these stem cells to try to explore possibilities for the 
epidemics of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and Lou Gehrig's disease and 
finally have some avenue toward a cure? Are we going to tie our hands 
as a nation?
  The Senate has a chance today to vote for the real bill: H.R. 810. 
That is the only bill dealing with stem cell research. There are two 
other bills we will be voting on, and honestly, they don't mean 
anything. They mean so little. One prohibits practices that are not 
occurring, and the other is just words--words that don't really lead to 
research.
  What is really troubling is the President has sent us a message, and 
we received it yesterday. The President said,

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with his Statement of Administration Policy, if H.R. 810, the real stem 
cell research bill, were presented to the President, he would veto the 
bill. This President, who calls himself a compassionate conservative, 
has a chance with the stem cell research bill to show his compassion 
for the millions of people suffering from disease, people who are 
clinging to the possibility of hope in medical research. I hope the 
President will reconsider. I hope he will not just dig in and say: 
That's it, I won't even think about it.
  I hope the President will pray on this because he is a prayerful man, 
and if he does, I hope he will understand that throwing away these stem 
cells, discarding them, declaring they are medical waste, is a waste of 
opportunity and a waste of hope.
  We have a chance with this stem cell bill to give hope to people. I 
have gathered those in Chicago who are interested in the issue, and 
there are so many of them: Representatives of groups, a mother who 
wakes in the middle of the night two or three times to take a blood 
test on her little girl to see if she needs insulin; a couple sitting 
before me--I will never forget them--he is suffering from Lou Gehrig's 
disease. He is in his thirties. He has reached the point now where he 
cannot speak or move. She brings him to our meeting, and as she 
describes what they have been through, tears are rolling down his 
cheeks, realizing he can't do anything to help himself at this point.
  Well, there is a chance--a chance, perhaps, for him but certainly for 
others--a chance for them, for those suffering from Parkinson's.
  My colleague from Illinois in the House, Lane Evans, is my buddy. We 
came to the House together in 1982. What a great guy. He is a Vietnam 
era Marine Corps veteran. He wins an upset victory in Illinois, comes 
in, he is a great Congressman, and then Parkinson's strikes. He had to 
announce this year he is ending his public career to continue this 
valiant battle against Parkinson's.
  He said, when he came to the floor and spoke on behalf of this bill: 
This is not just about the right to life, it is the right to live, the 
right for him to live, the right for others to live.
  I implore my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass this bill 
today with a strong vote. Say to the President: Please, in prayerful 
reflection, think about these people who are counting on us. Think 
about our chance to show that we are not just compassionate 
conservatives and compassionate progressives and compassionate 
liberals, we are compassionate Americans.
  I urge my colleagues to pass this bill, and I urge the President to 
reconsider his veto.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. DeMint). The Senator's time has expired.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I see the distinguished Senator from Alaska 
on the Senate floor. I believe he would like to introduce some people.

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