Stem Cell Research Would Help Many (Rep. Steve Cohen)

The stem cell debate is not about party lines.  It’s not even a pro-life/pro-choice debate.  It’s a question of the way that we as a society and we as a government take care of those who are suffering.  Too often government blunders into areas of its citizens’ lives that it should have no say in.  To make so many citizens wait, struggling with speech, balance, motor control, paralysis, extreme pain and/or the imminent threat of death while politicians debate and decide issues that should be left to medical professionals and scientists is unconscionable.  Stem cell research could help so many. There’s probably not a family in America that doesn’t have a member that could benefit.  The range of diseases and injuries that could potentially be cured or relieved is mind-boggling.

My father suffered the indignity of Alzheimer’s, as did President Ronald Reagan.  Christopher Reeve, forever Superman in our collective national consciousness, struggled valiantly to the end toward a cure for spinal cord injuries.  For each public face of a political leader or a movie star, there are thousands of ordinary citizens like my father, who suffer daily from diseases for which there are no cures.  We must not tie the hands of scientists and physicians with bureaucracy and red tape.

The vast majority of Americans believe that embryonic stem cell research should be allowed.  Doctors, scientists and ethicists agree.  I hope the President will find it in his heart to remember the very real suffering of so many Americans and sign the bill when it comes before him.