Johnny Isakson: “I rise to take advantage of the time assigned or allotted for all of us to discuss what is obviously a passionate…”

“I rise to take advantage of the time assigned or allotted for all of us to discuss what is obviously a passionate, controversial, and important issue. But I rise to talk about it from, probably, a different perspective than some of the other speeches--at least those I have heard. I want to talk prospectively, about what happens after this debate is over. If all the predictions come true, at the end of the day we will not debate stem cells for the rest of this year because the agreement to bring it to the floor was that we come to the floor, we debate these three bills, and the debate would be over for the year. The debate will not be over. In fact, if anything, this is probably the beginning of a long debate as we deal with the ethics and the morality and the hope and the promise of science as it relates to stem cells--in particular, embryonic stem cells. When the President issued his order in August of 2001, I supported it because it invested in embryonic stem cell research and it clearly drew the line in terms of how far we would go. I have been supportive of the President's policies on embryonic stem cell research since. When H.R. 810 passed, I began to do what I think all of us should do. I began to get educated as best I could on this controversial and important issue. Dr. Michael Johns at Emory University helped me. Dr. Steven Stice, at the University of Georgia, helped me.…”