Rayilyn -
Good on you. Never give up the fight.
Warm regards,
Bill Isbell
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
At 10:14 AM 7/25/2005, you wrote:
>
> Link To Article Print Article Email Article
> Article Launched: 07/25/2005 02:18:00 AM
>
> jim spencer
> As stem-cell bill languishes, so do the ill and dying
> By Jim Spencer
> Denver Post Columnist
>
>
>
> Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette is not surprised that the
> U.S. Senate has yet to debate the stem- cell research bill she shepherded
> through the House of Representatives two months ago.
>
> She's disappointed.
>
> Disappointed but determined.
>
> Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist had said he would let
> the Senate version of DeGette's bill be discussed.
>
> It hasn't happened yet.
>
> The stalling tactics are so obvious that Pennsylvania
> Sen. Arlen Specter last week threatened to attach the stem-cell bill to
> an appropriations bill and get it a hearing.
>
> Once more, America lets politics and religion trump
> science.
>
> Once more, sick and dying people pay the price.
>
> "Bill Frist is running for president," DeGette said.
> "He's trying to cater to the far right," which considers embryonic
> stem-cell research abortion.
>
> Frist is also trying to protect George Bush from having
> to make good on a veto threat that will placate the flat- Earth forces in
> his conservative base. Such a presidential veto will alienate mainstream
> Americans who appreciate and rely on scientific research.
>
> "This is an issue that isn't going away," DeGette said.
> "It's an issue with growing public support."
>
> Incorporating stem-cell research into an unrelated,
> "must-pass" Senate bill is clearly a parliamentary maneuver.
>
> "That's essentially what we had to do in the House to
> get a hearing," DeGette said. "We told (the leadership) we'd attach the
> stem-cell bill to any moving piece of legislation."
>
> Instead, House leaders decided to let the bill rise or
> fall on its merits.
>
> It won in the House, and has an excellent chance of
> winning in the Senate, where Republicans such as Specter and Orrin Hatch
> of Utah support it.
>
> "I think it would pass if it came to a vote," DeGette
> predicted. "Close to 60 senators signed a letter to the president
> (calling for expanded stem-cell research)."
>
> Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard does not disclose his
> position on bills passed by the House but not yet introduced in the
> Senate, said Allard's spokeswoman, Angela DeRocha.
>
> In a statement released Friday, Colorado Sen. Ken
> Salazar had no problem taking a stand: "I will support the stem- cell
> research bill that is soon to be before the Senate so that we can finally
> move beyond the rhetoric dividing this issue to the hope-giving results
> of morally and ethically guided research."
>
> Polls show that most people in this country want more
> stem-cell research. That's because so many of them stand to benefit from
> it. An estimated
>
>
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------
> Advertisement
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
> 100 million Americans are affected by or know someone
> with diseases, conditions and injuries that might be helped by stem-cell
> research.
> "Since the bill passed the House," DeGette said,
> "hundreds of people have thanked me. They say, 'My father has
> Parkinson's.' Or 'My brother has Lou Gehrig's disease.' Or 'I have family
> members with diabetes."'
>
> Spinal cord injuries, cancer - just about every patient
> can benefit.
>
> DeGette's bill needs a Senate hearing. It allows the
> federal government to pay researchers to study embryonic stem-cell lines
> created from embryos that will otherwise be thrown away by fertility
> clinics. Donors of those embryos must consent to this research. No one
> gets paid for the embryos.
>
> The flat-Earthers call this abortion. They argue that a
> sperm fertilized by an egg is a person. They argue that artificial
> insemination is wrong. They argue that frozen embryos should be stored
> indefinitely. And finally, they argue that if a choice must be made
> between discarding frozen embryos or letting them help cure diseases and
> ease the suffering of real human beings, it's more moral to throw the
> embryos away.
>
> That's not just narrow-minded; it's medieval.
>
> It's time for Bill Frist and other politicians to
> listen to people like Rayilyn Brown.
>
> A self-described "ovarian cancer survivor" and
> "Parkinson's disease prisoner," Brown asks only for enlightenment.
>
> "I am very disturbed by the confusion of scientific and
> religious truth," Brown said. "People seem more ignorant than ever, and I
> am one of those people who suffers because of religious agendas stifling
> stem-cell research.
>
> "I don't expect a cure in the U.S. in my lifetime, but
> the Dark Ages lasted a thousand years."
>
> Jim Spencer's column appears Monday, Wednesday and
> Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or [log in to unmask]
>
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