Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005
STEM CELL THERAPEUTIC AND RESEARCH ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - December 17, 2005)
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Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the remaining time.
Mr. Speaker, I believe this is a bold scientific step to pass this legislation today, and I am pleased that the Senate released their hold on it and passed this bill. It is good legislation.
We heard during the arguments on the previous bill that was debated here on the floor, science certainly moves a lot more swiftly than the legislative process, and that is certainly true in this case today. By allowing this bill, we are going to allow hundreds, perhaps thousands of Americans the opportunity for a cure that we were withholding by delaying passage of this bill.
I have heard diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's referenced. Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, unfortunately, are unlikely to be cured by umbilical cord stem cells, but they are also unlikely to be cured by embryonic stem cell research. The promise for cure for these diseases lies in protein science and our understanding of the human genome, not in stem cell research.
This bill is a good bill because it authorizes a significant amount of money for the collection, the documentation and the maintenance of 150,000 new stem cell lives. These are pluripotential cells.
What has changed since we had our debate on the stem cell lines here last spring? Well, we have read a lot of stuff in the newspapers just the past 2 weeks about some of the changes, some of the research that has now been withdrawn. Think about this, Mr. Speaker: We do not even know what research is just out there over the horizon. What if we unlock some of the proteinemic keys that allow us to understand what signals one cell to another? What if we could make the umbilical cord stem cell behave more like the embryonic stem cell? Think of that, Mr. Speaker. Then we have got 150,000 lines banked and ready to go when that research which is being done in my home State of Texas at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, if that research shows the promise that it one day may, we will have 150,000 cell lines banked and ready to go.
Mr. Speaker, this procedure, this technique, this ability to bank umbilical cord cells allows for there to be greater diversity within the marrow donor pool than was previously known. It has been difficult to get minority populations to become marrow donors. Now we will be able to collect that cell material at the time of birth painlessly, at no risk to anyone, material that was otherwise going to be discarded, and it will be put into these stem cell lines. And the database will be there for people to reference and find these life-saving cures that will be now available by umbilical cord stem cells.
We are expanding America's inventory of cord blood cells today, and that is a good thing for all Americans. Whether they are sick or not, one day they may need this technology. We have the ability and the capacity within our hands to expand this program and save American lives, and I say that is a good thing.
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