Political Quotes

“this bill is part of a broader, tragic political agenda to stymie good science with scare tactics. It fails totally to distinguish between cloning or reproducing human beings--a frightful prospect that all of us reject--and therapeutic cloning, which someday could save the lives of millions. The therapeutic form, the transplanting of a patient's DNA into an unfertilized egg in order to grow stem cells, could cure devastating diseases. The promise of this technology would be that the patient's body accepts the cells from transplantation without immuno-suppressant drugs. These cells are not transplanted into a woman's womb. In what is deliberate overreaching, this bill bans somatic cell nuclear transfer, which produces only stem cells, not babies. First, we Americans were told to use duct tape to seal up our rooms. Now, with this bill, the Republican leadership places duct tape over the microscopes of dedicated medical scientists who are leading the effort to find the cures for diabetes, Alzheimer's, ALS, Parkinson's, cancer, spinal cord injuries and cystic fibrosis. At a time when we are alarmed daily by the possibility of biological attacks from afar, this bill represents a very real and present biological attack on the victims of these tragic diseases, diseases that strike Americans down in a nonpartisan manner. They deserve a nonpartisan solution. For most parents, it is traumatic enough to take a child to the hospital for a tonsillectomy or a broken bone.”