[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 77-78]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           STEM CELL RESEARCH

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I wish to pick up a little bit from 
Senator Murray's remarks and talk about S. 5, the stem cell bill, that 
was also introduced today by the majority leader, Senator Reid.
  Stem cell research, when it is stripped of all of the phony arguments 
and rhetoric, is basically about hope. It is hope for people with Lou 
Gehrig's disease. It is hope for people with spinal cord injuries, hope 
for kids suffering from juvenile diabetes, hope for people with 
Parkinson's disease.
  In this Congress, we are going to bring those hopes one giant step 
closer to reality. At long last, hopefully, we will lift the 
President's restrictions on stem cell research and finally give our 
Nation's best scientists the tools they need to produce treatments and 
cures.
  The bill we have introduced today, S. 5, the Stem Cell Research 
Enhancement Act of 2007, is the exact same bill that passed both Houses 
last year with strong bipartisan support. The House passed the bill 238 
to 194. The Senate passed it 63 to 37.
  Regrettably, the President chose to exercise his first and only veto 
of his administration in vetoing this bill. And with his veto, the 
President ignored the will of the American people, he ignored scores of 
Nobel laureates, he ignored top scientists at the National Institutes 
of Health, and with one stroke of his pen, he dashed the hopes of 
millions of Americans suffering from diseases that could one day be 
cured or treated through stem cell research.
  But now we are back, it is a new Congress, and the voices of hope are 
stronger than ever. In November, the American people elected many new

[[Page 78]]

Members of Congress who support stem cell research and replaced many 
former Members of Congress who opposed this research. As a result, we 
will pass this bill again this year, and the margins of victory will be 
even wider.
  Let me spend a moment reviewing what S. 5 would accomplish. More than 
5 years ago, the President announced in a speech that federally funded 
scientists could conduct research only on embryonic stem cell lines 
that were derived prior to 9 p.m. on August 9, 2001. The President gave 
his speech that evening, August 9, 2001. He said all of those stem cell 
lines derived before 9 p.m., that was OK, but if they were derived 
after 9 p.m., they could not be funded with Federal funds. I never 
understood that. Why was it 9 p.m.? Why wasn't it 9:15 p.m. or maybe 
8:45, 9:13? Why was it 9 p.m.? At the beginning, one has to question 
the logic of why 9 p.m. was the time barrier.
  When the President announced his policy, he said that 78 stem cell 
lines were eligible for research. We now know that is not so. Only 21 
are eligible, not nearly enough to reflect the genetic diversity of 
this Nation.
  What is more, every one of those lines, all 21 of those lines are 
contaminated with mouse cells. They were grown on mouse cells, so they 
are all contaminated. So none of them will ever be used for any kind of 
human treatment.
  Meanwhile, hundreds of new stem cell lines have been derived since 
the President's arbitrary deadline. Many of these lines are 
uncontaminated, they are healthy, but they are totally off limits to 
federally funded scientists.
  That is really a shame because if we are serious about realizing the 
promise of stem cell research, our scientists need access to the best 
stem cell lines possible. We need a stem cell policy that offers true 
and meaningful hope. That is what S. 5 would provide.
  Under this bill, federally funded researchers could study any stem 
cell line, regardless of the date it was derived, as long as certain 
strong ethical guidelines are met. I point out, again, as I have in the 
past and I will continue to point out, that the ethical guidelines in 
S. 5 are stronger than the ethical guidelines under the existing 
policy.
  What are those guidelines?
  One, no money can be exchanged. No one can ever be paid for donating 
embryos.
  Second, these embryos can only be used for stem cell research and for 
nothing else.
  And third, the donors have to give informed consent for them to be 
used.
  The final point is most important. The only way a stem cell line 
could be eligible for this federally funded research is if it were 
derived from an embryo that was otherwise going to be discarded. Let 
me, again, say what that means.
  There are more than 400,000 embryos frozen in in vitro fertilization 
clinics all over the country--over 400,000. Right now, the only thing 
that can happen to those is that they be discarded. They are thrown 
away every day. Every day embryos are discarded in in vitro 
fertilization clinics all over America. The donors have no other 
choice.
  Take friends of mine, a young couple. They couldn't have children. 
They finally went to an IVF clinic. That didn't work. They went to 
another one. Now she is pregnant, and they are going to have twins. 
They may have one or two more children--I don't know--but there are 
going to be some of those embryos left over. Right now my friend's only 
choice is to have them discarded. That is her only choice. But as she 
said to me: I would love, after I have my children and my family, if 
there are embryos left over, I would love to be able to donate them for 
stem cell research to help cure disease and to help people who are 
sick.
  Right now she cannot do that. Neither she nor her husband can do 
that. Our bill would allow them to have that option. No one is forced 
to do anything, but it would allow them to have that option.
  I also, wish to point out again one of the misconceptions. These are 
embryos. They are blastocysts. They have about 100 cells. I always do 
this: I put a dot on a piece of paper, hold it up and say: Can anybody 
see that? That is what we are talking about. It is about the size of a 
period at the end of a sentence. There is a lot of misinformation about 
what we are talking about.
  As I said before, Congress is going to pass this bill, that is 
certain. Sadly, some are already predicting the President will veto it 
for a second time. I hope they are wrong. I hope the President will 
respect the will of the people and sign the stem cell research bill. 
But if he does veto it, we will persist. We will use every legislative 
means at our disposal to make sure S. 5 is enacted into law, and it 
will happen during this Congress.
  My nephew Kelly is one of the millions of Americans whose hopes 
depend on stem cell research. Kelly was in the Navy. He had a terrible 
accident on an aircraft carrier, and he has been basically a paraplegic 
now for 28 years. But he has kept his hopes alive that our scientists 
will be able to find a cure. Stem cell research offers the best hope 
for people suffering from spinal cord injuries.
  Now is the time to give them the hope, to lift the ban on stem cell 
research. As I said, we will do that in this Congress. It will be one 
of the first bills we pass. I hope the President will sign it and we 
can move on. But if not, for Kelly and for so many millions of 
Americans, we hope the long wait is almost over. I predict that hope 
will prevail in this Congress.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.

                          ____________________