Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007
Floor Speech
STEM CELL RESEARCH ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - June 07, 2007)
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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, first, I want to express my enormous appreciation to Congresswoman Diana DeGette.
This morning Speaker Pelosi said, this is really a great day, not only in the United States Congress but for the American people around the country. Many times we deal with issues that are either sort of lower on the list of importance. We name post offices. We give certain honors to individuals. That's all good. But today we're dealing with an issue that affects millions, over 100 million Americans, really not a family that's not touched by Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, as Diana DeGette's daughter is. And like many mothers who come to the Congress and ask us to address issues that have affected their children, Diana DeGette is in a position to actually make something happen, and she has, in the most educated, illuminated, compassionate way, to bring this legislation to the floor of the House of Representatives today.
I also rise in the name of our beloved friend and part of our congressional family, Lane Evans. Lane is one of the million Americans who suffers from Parkinson's disease, who has had to cut his career short. His leadership and dedication to making progress with stem cell research was inspiring. He understood the hope that embryonic stem cell research holds for so many like him. It's time that we pass this bill for people like Lane Evans; a hero, a Marine, someone who has fought all his life. And now we need to fight for him.
I also rise in support of this bill for my friend, Bonnie Wilson, and her daughter, Jenna, who's one of the 7 million American children living with diabetes. Stem cell treatment may be her only hope. It's time that we finally make progress, put aside ideology, and, yes, it is about ideology versus science, and pay attention to the science. And I want to thank all the children and parents, the children who have diabetes who have come to me year after year after year after year to my office, told me about the shots that they take, the parents waking up several times during the night to check the levels on their children; worrying day and night that they are going to get that phone call that there has been some disaster. It's for them that we do this. And so we're standing today on the brink of incredible scientific breakthroughs that are going to address the issues that plague all our families. My family has been plagued by the early loss of my daughter-in-law, Fiona, to cancer.
Let me just say then, for Fiona and for my grandchildren who were left motherless at a very, very young age, and all the families, I'm not alone. No one's alone in this; that we stand together today to say we believe in a cure. We want to support a cure. We, the American people, through our taxpayer dollars, what could be a better expenditure of that? Should we throw away unused embryonic stem cells? Should we toss in the garbage, literally, the possibility of these cures? I don't think so. Let's take that leap today for our children and future generations.
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