Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005

STEM CELL RESEARCH ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - May 24, 2005)

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Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I come to speak for life, life for people with diabetes, life for people with Parkinson's, life for people with damaged hearts.

What possible benefit is it for life to discard these cells without allowing them to be used to bring life, to save life, to preserve life? If these cells have any future, it is through curing disease. If Members wish to give them life, then let them give life to others. This is their only hope, and it is our best hope.

Dr. Connie Davis, the medical director of University of Washington's Kidney and Kidney-Pancreas Transplant Program, put this discussion in perspective when I was talking to her yesterday. She reminded me that the donation of a kidney used to be a controversial issue in this country. It is no longer so.

Our bill allows donors of these stem cells to make a donation decision, a donation to research. A narrow segment of our Nation did not stop lifesaving kidney donations, and a narrow segment should not stop embryonic stem cell research. Healing is a moral thing to do.

I met a man at the Transplant Association the other day. He and his wife had, in fact, had an in vitro fertilization. He had other additional embryos that were available. He wanted to make those available to cure people with diabetes and Parkinson's disease, and he had one thing he asked me. He said to me, Let me and my wife make that moral judgment, not the 435 strangers who know nothing about my moral interior values or my life.

That is an American right to donation. We should preserve it and pass this bill.

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