Tom Coburn: “I make a couple of points based on what we just heard. The first has to do with stem cells. As the Presiding Officer…”

“I make a couple of points based on what we just heard. The first has to do with stem cells. As the Presiding Officer knows, I am a practicing physician. I am still delivering babies on weekends and our breaks. I am concerned in our country because we are letting emotional issues far override what the science today says on stem cells. We have a lot of people who have significant diseases who have been convinced that the only way those diseases will ever be solved is to use embryonic stem cells. The dishonesty in the debate is concerning to me as a physician because the real breakthroughs have not been with embryonic stem cells. There are now 70 treatments being utilized every day in this country from stem cells derived from core blood and adult blood stem cells. There also is wonderful new research in the last year that says you can gain exactly the same pluripotent--a cell that will do anything--from germ cells, from altered nuclear transfer, from three different mechanisms to get the exact same ability to cure diseases and never destroy the first embryo. We do not hear that in the debate.…”