For Immediate Release
January 11, 2007
Media Contact: Ray Yonkura
(202) 225-2676
Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007
Washington, DC --
SPEECH OF
HON. JIM JORDAN
OF OHIO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 11, 2007
Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Speaker, the Founders had it right. We are created with certain inalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty and the pursuits of happiness. It is interesting the order the Founders placed the rights they chose to mention. Can you pursue happiness if you first don't have liberty? Can you ever go after your goals and dreams if you first don't have freedom? And do you ever have true freedom if government doesn't protect your most fundamental right, your right to live?
H.R. 3 devalues human life. It ends human life, and it does so with taxpayer dollars. This is the wrong kind of message to send. It is the wrong thing to do.
On this issue, the science is also clear. The morals are clear, and the ethics are clear. We do not have to end life to protect it. Today, as has been pointed out earlier, American doctors are performing all kinds of positive research without taking human life. Embryonic stem cell research is not producing results, even after 25 years and millions of dollars of taxpayer money.
Like other pro-life Members of this body, I support ethical research that protects life, but embryonic stem cell research does not.
Mr. Speaker, the ethical decision is the smart decision. That is why I oppose this bill, and hope others do as well.
Mr. Speaker, the Founders of our great Nation got it right. We are created with certain inalienable rights, and among those rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is in defense of the first of these rights--the right to life--that I rise today to express my opposition to H.R. 3, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007. Like its cousin, H.R. 810, which failed to pass the legislative process during the last Congress, H.R. 3 would provide new Federal auspices and funding to destroy embryos for use in embryonic stem cell research.
Like the other pro-life members of this House, Mr. Speaker, I enthusiastically support the many forms of ethical stem cell research taking place in our country today--research that has already yielded invaluable treatments for over 70 health conditions. Among these are successful treatments for Brain Cancer, Breast Cancer, various forms of Lymphoma and Leukemia, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, spinal cord injury, Sickle Cell Anemia and Krabbe Disease.
Research has demonstrated that various forms of adult stem cell materials, umbilical cord blood and, as described in a Washington Times article from January 8th, amniotic fluid are an excellent source of pluripotent stem cells. Such ethical sources have yielded all of these effective treatments and offer hope for Americans suffering the ravages of disease. In many cases, these materials are taken from the patients themselves and so offer a better therapeutic match than materials taken from the embryos of other humans. Furthermore, expansion of the resources designed to gather and store these materials will increase the number and frequency of successful treatments.
Despite these significant facts, many in this House are pressing for Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, which necessitates destroying human embryos and, thus, human lives. The pre-born are precious human beings from the moment of conception. They deserve our protection and love and no benefit--perceived or otherwise--should persuade us to allow their destruction. All of this added to the fact that embryonic stem cell research has never yielded a successful treatment for any disease, in spite of millions in annual funding (the NIH spent $38 million on human embryonic stem cell research in 2005) and 25 years of animal and human research. In recent years, embryonic stem cell research has also been marred by fraud through the falsified cloning reports of Dr. Hwang Woo Suk.
Some people have argued that pre-existing human embryos now in storage must be used for research because they are destined for destruction anyway. This is not borne out by the fact that the vast majority of human embryos were created for family-building and that families can adopt and have adopted these embryos and had children.
Mr. Speaker, we must not make a morally repugnant choice in the interest of expedience and we must not play God with human lives. We must defend the lives of the pre-born while facilitating ethical forms of stem cell research that have produced concrete results and hold great promise for the future. This is most consistent with a compassionate regard for all life--young and old…
