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Brownback Highlights Successful Adult and Cord Blood Stem Cell Treatments
Highlights fetus farming bill and hears from patients treated through adult and cord blood stem cell research
July 17, 2006 - WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Sam Brownback today heard from people who successfully received treatments based on adult and cord blood stem cell research.
“The patients joining me today show how adult and cord blood stem cell research delivers real results,” said Brownback. “Adult and cord blood stem cell research has yielded 72 peer-reviewed treatments for conditions ranging from spinal injuries to leukemia. Embryonic stem cell research, which has not delivered any peer-reviewed treatments or human clinical trials, is immoral and unnecessary because of the much greater promise and track record of adult and cord blood stem cell research.”
At a press conference today Brownback was joined by Cathy Pell, whose daughter Abby was treated with her own cord blood stem cells for brain damage suffered during birth; Stephen Sprague, who was cured from leukemia by a cord blood adult stem cell transplant after being told by doctors that he would not survive; and Mary Schneider, whose three-year-old son Ryan received a cord blood adult stem cell treatment for cerebral palsy.
Brownback continued, “The people who spoke today are living proof that ethical adult and cord blood stem cell research provides real results for real people. While researchers in the private sector are free to destroy young human lives through embryonic stem cell research, the government should not be in the business of funding this ethically troubling research with taxpayer dollars. As the Senate considers several bioethics bills, I hope to see passage of the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act, which would prohibit the gruesome practice of initiating human pregnancies in either women or animals for the purpose of obtaining human organs or tissues for research.”
Senator Brownback was also joined by three families with children who were adopted as frozen embryos from in-vitro fertilization clinics: Steve Johnson and his daughter Zara; Marlene Strege and her daughter Hannah; and Maria Lancaster and her daughter Elisha.
The Senate today begins debate on three stem cell bills: S.3504, the Santorum-Brownback Fetus Farming Prohibition Act; S.2754, the Santorum-Specter Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act; and H.R.810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, sponsored by Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE). Votes on the three bills are expected on Tuesday.
Brownback is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee.
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