Jon Kyl: “we live in an age when medical miracles are occurring every day, many in my home State of Arizona. Breakthroughs are…”

“we live in an age when medical miracles are occurring every day, many in my home State of Arizona. Breakthroughs are treating and curing children and adults who could have died from their diseases just a few years ago. And some of these cures and treatments are the result of stem cell research. For example, thanks to the Cord Blood Registry located in Tucson, children and adults are being treated, and often cured, of once terminal diseases such as leukemia, aplastic anemia, cerebral palsy, and sickle-cell anemia. And these are just a handful of the 72 diseases that have undergone clinical trials or been treated using stem cells obtained from bone marrow and umbilical cord blood. I favor the broadest possible effort to pursue promising medical technologies within appropriate ethical limits. Scientists have derived stem cells from two principal sources: the tissues, fluids, and organs of adults, and cells from human embryos. Human embryonic stem cells have only been obtained through a process that destroys the embryo. In the last Congress, we passed, and the President signed into law, the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005.”