Joe Pitts: “last week we said that we should fund adult stem cell research and we should fund it generously. For diseases like…”

“last week we said that we should fund adult stem cell research and we should fund it generously. For diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, or serious illnesses that have no cures, at least not yet, stem cell research holds a lot of promise. But we should be doing ethical stem cell research, and that means not using stem cells from human embryos. Adult umbilical and placental stem cell research holds a great deal of promise, but killing human embryos is wrong. Look at this picture of Mark and Luke Borden. These brothers were frozen human embryos soon after they were conceived. Some scientists may have liked to have taken them as embryos and destroyed them so they could harvest the stem cells, but the Borden family adopted them instead. As human embryos, these little boys were implanted in the womb of their adopted mother where they matured into babies and were born just like any other children. Now they are happy and healthy growing boys. Mark and Luke Borden have the same right to live as any other children. No one doubts that now. We should not have doubted it when they were human embryos either.”