Washington, D.C. ,
Dec 1, 2004 -
Full Text of Weldon House Floor Speech: Mr. Speaker, I rose a short while ago, spoke for 1 minute about a brave young lady. She was in my office just yesterday, along with another brave young lady. This is Susan Fajt, and she was accompanied by Laura Dominguez. Both had suffered spinal cord injuries. Both ladies were injured in a car wreck. Laura's injury was in the neck, and this young lady's injury was in what we call T-6. It is the thoracic spine which is sort of the upper part of the chest, middle of the chest area.
I practiced medicine for 15 years before I was elected to the House. I still see patients once a month. I used to take care of a lot of spinal cord injuries, and in the past it has been very hard and very difficult because there really was not very much that you could do.
What both of these ladies had done, this is a new treatment, a new intervention; and it is not approved to be done in the United States. The place where it is currently being done is in Portugal by a Dr. Carlos Lima. One of the doctors working with Carlos Lima is an American doctor from Alabama, and what they do is stem cell transplant. They harvest the stem cells from the nose, what we call the olfactory mucosa, and place them in strips along the injured section of the spinal cord.
This lady previously was confined to a wheelchair. She had no sensation from about the middle of her chest down, no muscle control in her lower body and in her legs. So she was confined to a wheelchair, unable to walk; and with this intervention, she is now able to walk with braces on her legs, and we can see the braces down there, and with the assistance of a walker. Still obviously very handicapped, but she is actually continuing to show improvement.
She and I talked at some length. She feels the same way that I do, that embryonic stem cell research should not be illegal, and it is not illegal in the United States.
We hear around this town that we need to lift the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. There are no restrictions. The real debate in this town is because we destroy an embryo in the process of doing embryonic stem cell research, a lot of people feel that that is morally and ethically wrong and that it should not be funded by taxpayer dollars; and this is really what the debate is about in Washington. It is really about funding the destruction of more embryos because in reality the NIH today is funding some embryonic stem cell research. They are just not funding the further destruction of more embryos.
What we will also hear over and over and over again is that embryonic stem cells have all the potential and the adult stem cells do not, and I have risen on this floor multiple times over the past 4 years pointing out to my colleagues that in the medical literature today we can read research articles reporting that diseases like multiple sclerosis and lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and even Parkinson's disease are being cured or significantly improved with adult stem cells. You cannot show me one article that embryonic stem cells have ever been used for anything like that. Indeed, you cannot even show me a good animal model where embryonic stem cells are successful in treating an animal with a disease.
There is one study in rats showing that they may have some application in this arena here, but the embryonic stem cells are genetically unstable. They form tumors called teratomas.
The real reason why so many people are excited about embryonic stem cell is because you cannot patent this procedure. You do this procedure, you cannot get rich; but if you can develop an embryonic stem cell that can do that, you can become perhaps one of the richest people in the world.
I just rise to point out to my colleagues that adult stem cells are being used for incredible things, and Susan and Laura were both tremendously helped by adult stem cells. Nobody on the other side of this argument can get up on the floor of the House today with a picture like this using embryonic stem cells, and Susan and Laura both felt the same way, Laura did not have her braces with her so I could not get a shot of her standing up, that they do not want to make embryonic stem cells illegal, but they feel the same way that I do. They are insulted when people say adult stem cells have no potential.
Why Kerry is Wrong
Weldon Released the following statement when during the Presidential race, Senator Kerry wrongly told Americans that treatments with embryo stem cells “are right at our fingertips.”
"During the Presidential race, Senator Kerry decided to put reasonable debate aside and put political dogma into full swing. Dogma regarding stell cell research that is full of errors, misleading hype, and reduces important ethical choices to mere sound bites."
“At the heart of this debate is not whether 'ideology' stands in the way of medical progress, but whether medical progress should be informed by any ethical norms at all. Senator Kerry and others like him have absorbed the idea that science is truth, that science is the final arbiter. It is not. Should we let that happen, we will have turned an ugly corner in our humanity."
“This debate is over whether science will continue to serve humanity or whether humanity will be become guinea pigs for science. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. Most people instinctively know that there is a link between material order and moral order. Sever that connection, and we seer our conscience. Perhaps Senator Kerry is comfortable doing that, but I am not prepared to foist that same disregard on the nation."
“The American public has been told that there is 'a ban on stem cell research.' There is none. Embryo stem cell research in this country is legal and unrestricted. The current debate is over whether taxpayers should be forced to pay for research that many view as unethical."
“Americans have also been told that treatments with embryo stem cells 'are right at our fingertips.' They are not. These are deliberate falsehoods used merely for political gain. This kind of rhetoric can create false hopes for many sick and suffering people. Doing this to get votes is despicable."
“Despite what Senator Kerry would have us believe, research on embryo stem cells has revealed that they have inherent biological problems that make treatments for human disease unlikely in the next decade or beyond. Indeed, James Thomson, who discovered human embryo stem cells in 1998, claims “that transplantation of differentiated human ES cell derivatives into human recipients may result in the formation of ES cell-derived tumors.”
“It’s time for politicians to stop cruelly raising the hopes of millions of Americans with the unsubstantiated promise of embryonic stem cell research. Instead, we should focus on using sound, ethical research on adult stem cells and umbilical cord blood cells to get real cures to patients as quickly as possible,” said Rep. Dave Weldon.
