Tom Harkin: “Stem cell research, when it is stripped of all of the phony arguments and rhetoric, is basically about hope. It is hope…”

“Stem cell research, when it is stripped of all of the phony arguments and rhetoric, is basically about hope. It is hope for people with Lou Gehrig's disease. It is hope for people with spinal cord injuries, hope for kids suffering from juvenile diabetes, hope for people with Parkinson's disease. In this Congress, we are going to bring those hopes one giant step closer to reality. At long last, hopefully, we will lift the President's restrictions on stem cell research and finally give our Nation's best scientists the tools they need to produce treatments and cures. The bill we have introduced today, S. 5, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, is the exact same bill that passed both Houses last year with strong bipartisan support. The House passed the bill 238 to 194. The Senate passed it 63 to 37. Regrettably, the President chose to exercise his first and only veto of his administration in vetoing this bill. And with his veto, the President ignored the will of the American people, he ignored scores of Nobel laureates, he ignored top scientists at the National Institutes of Health, and with one stroke of his pen, he dashed the hopes of millions of Americans suffering from diseases that could one day be cured or treated through stem cell research.”