Bill Nelson: “we just heard a great deal of discussion and disagreement. My bottom line on this whole issue of stem cell research is…”

“we just heard a great deal of discussion and disagreement. My bottom line on this whole issue of stem cell research is that a vast majority of the medical and scientific community feels that this is a process which would lead to medical breakthroughs in the fight against disease. To this Senator, that is worth exploring. There is hardly a Senator here whose life has not been touched by disease, in one way or another, through their family. In this particular Senator's life, my family has been touched by disease, and we don't know the cause of it. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's disease. It took down the great baseball player, Lou Gehrig. For years, the researchers have looked and looked and researched and researched and have not found a cure. The ALS community, along with many other communities, is concerned about the treatment and cure of diseases on which stem cell research might offer a clue. Researchers believe that stem cells may have the potential to treat over 100 million Americans who suffer from a variety of conditions, many of which you heard already discussed on the floor of the Senate today. There is a T-shirt that I jogged in this morning. It was given to me by the Miami Project. One of the most graphic symbols on this T-shirt is the international symbol of a wheelchair-bound person, and that international symbol suddenly starts to become upright and walks.…”