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Except for Story Landis' testimony there was little news coverage of the rest of the Senate hearing S.5 (the Senate version of the embryonic stem cell bill) that was held on Friday, Jan. 19th. Thanks should be sent to NINDS director Landis for speaking out against the White House policy. email: [log in to unmask] Here are remarks by committee chairman Sen. Harkin. Linda Herman FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, January 19, 2007 STATEMENT OF SENATOR TOM HARKIN (D-IA) AT THE JOINT COMMITTEE HEARING ON STEM CELLS ~~As Prepared for Delivery~~ “This is the 20th hearing that Senator Specter and I have held on human embryonic stem cells, starting back in December 1998, one month after Dr. Jamie Thomson of the University of Wisconsin announced that he had isolated them for the first time. Since that time, I’ve talked to hundreds of patients and their family members about their hopes for this research. I’ve visited laboratories and talked to scientists. I’ve heard from ethicists and religious leaders. And every day, I become more and more convinced that we in Congress need to do all we can to promote this research. “Meanwhile, the opponents have become more and more desperate. We saw that earlier this month during the hysteria over Dr. Anthony Atala’s new research on amniotic stem cells. Opponents breathlessly claimed that, on the basis of this one paper, embryonic stem cell research should be abandoned – even though Dr. Atala himself completely disagrees with that conclusion. “It is essential,’ Dr. Atala wrote, ‘that National Institute of Health-funded researchers are able to fully pursue embryonic stem cell research as a complement to research into other forms of stem cells.’ “A few days later, the White House released a 60-page polemic against embryonic stem cell research in which it touted research by Kevin Eggan of Harvard, who testified before my subcommittee last year. Here’s what Dr. Eggan wrote in response to that White House report: ‘We are disappointed that the White House Office of Domestic Policy gave us no opportunity to correct the report’s clear misrepresentation of our work … On the contrary, we assert that human embryonic stem cells hold great promise to find new treatments and cures for diseases, and we support … the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act.’ “The House overwhelmingly passed that bill earlier this month, and the Senate will pass it soon. There’s no question about that. The only question is what the President will do when the bill reaches his desk. Most people assume that he’ll veto it. But I’m not so sure. “Earlier this month, White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo was quoted in a Gannett news story as saying this about stem cell research: ‘The president has said that after careful and thoughtful deliberation with government and outside experts, there was only one moral line he said he would not cross and that is that federal taxpayer dollars should not be used in the destruction of embryos.’ “This is a very interesting statement. Because if it’s true, the President should have no problem signing our bill. S. 5 would not allow federal funding to be used for the destruction of embryos. That’s prohibited by the Dickey amendment, which is included every year in the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. Our stem cell bill doesn’t have anything to say about the Dickey amendment. “We’re only talking about using embryos that are going to be destroyed anyway. Every day, IVF clinics discard embryos that are no longer needed for fertility treatments. All we’re asking is to use stem cells from some of these excess embryos for research that could save people’s lives. No federal tax dollars would be used to derive the stem cells; that work would be done using nonfederal funding. “So either this spokeswoman misrepresented the President’s position, in which case I expect she’s been taken out to the woodshed, or the White House just opened the door to signing our bill. I hope it’s the latter. I hope President Bush will listen to the scientists at the NIH and elsewhere who want this research to proceed. Most important, I hope he’ll listen to the millions of Americans who suffer from juvenile diabetes, spinal cord injuries, ALS, Parkinson’s, and cancer, who view stem cell research as their best hope for a treatment or cure. “I want to thank all the witnesses who have taken the time to testify before us today. We have an outstanding group of scientists, all of whom I’ve met before at some point over the years. I hadn’t met Lauren Stanford until this morning, but I feel like I know her. Senator Kennedy and I talked about her a lot on the Senate floor last year, and her story helped us pass H.R. 810.” # # # http://harkin.senate.gov/press/print-release.cfm?id=267708 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn