FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Isakson Calls for Federal Funding of Embryonic Stem Cell Research Through Proven Process That Respects Life 
‘This Bill Is a Win-Win’

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) today spoke on the Senate floor in support of legislation that would allow federal investment in embryonic stem cell research that avoids the moral dilemma of destroying a potential life in the process.

Isakson introduced S.30, the Hope Offered through Principled and Ethical Stem Cell Research (HOPE) Act, last month with Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). The Senate is scheduled to vote on the legislation this week. The HOPE Act allows science to move forward in an ethical and moral way by permitting federal funding of scientific research that does not harm embryos, such as deriving cells from amniotic fluid and placentas, and from embryos that have died naturally.                        

“I would submit that the HOPE Act is a road for us to walk proudly down that enhances and advances immediately research into embryonic stem cell cures while respecting the ethical and scientific and moral concerns existing in the medical community today,” Isakson said on the Senate floor. “It is not always possible in the body politic for solutions to be win-win. This bill is a win-win. It's a win for hope. It's a win for research. It's a win for promise.”

Isakson’s bill defines “naturally dead” as “having naturally and irreversibly lost the capacity for integrated cellular division, growth and differentiation that is characteristic of an organism, even if some cells of the former organism may be alive in a disorganized state.”  This definition is consistent with the definition of death in all 50 states.

“It is absolutely possible to further embryonic stem cell research today without destroying a viable embryo and have a plethora of available stem cells for researchers and for scientists,” Isakson said. “This bill is a common-sense approach that protects and promotes the health of human life from conception to natural death.”

Isakson’s legislation was inspired in part based on research that is being conducted at the University of Georgia on three NIH-registered embryonic stem cell lines that were derived from embryos produced during the natural course of the in-vitro fertilization process but considered incapable of surviving in the womb or during the freezing process.

The Senate is also considering a second stem cell bill this week that would permit federal funding of embryonic stem cell research that allows for the potential destruction of viable embryos. That bill, S.5, is similar to legislation that passed the House and Senate last year, but was later vetoed by President Bush. Isakson voted against this legislation last year and plans to vote against S.5 this week, because he feels it is wrong to federally fund research that potentially destroys human life when there is an alternative method of research that avoids the moral dilemma.

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