Arlen Specter: “there are some 400,000 of those embryos which have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease…”

“there are some 400,000 of those embryos which have been frozen and which will either be used potentially to cure disease or will be discarded. Embryos are created for in vitro fertilization. A few of them are used and the others are frozen. If any of these embryos could be used to produce life, none of us would advocate the research. But they will not be used to produce life. Our subcommittee took the lead in providing $2 million for embryonic stem cell adoption. As of April 5 of this year, the Night Life Christian Adoption Service reports that embryo adoption resulted in the birth of some 135 so-called snowflake children, and 20 babies are currently due. It is obvious by these statistics that we have enormous wasted resources available for scientific research. I have in my hand an hourglass. This hourglass was referenced by one of my constituents, a man named Jim Cordy, from Pittsburgh, PA, who suffers from Parkinson's. When I was in Pittsburgh years ago, Jim Cordy approached me with an hourglass. He said: Senator, the sands are slipping through this hourglass like my life is slipping away. There is the potential for curing Parkinson's, and you ought to be doing something about it. We have tried mightily. Senator Harkin, Senator Kennedy, Senator Hatch, Senator Smith, Senator Feinstein--many of us have tried mightily. Last year we passed a bill for stem cell research which would allow the use of Federal funds for research.”