Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006

FETUS FARMING PROHIBITION ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - July 18, 2006)

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Ms. DeGETTE. I just must say, Mr. Speaker, this has got to be a new record of transmission of a bill from the Senate to the House. I was literally on the Senate floor a few minutes ago when S. 3504 was passed, and I had to run to the House to have it considered.

I think this bill is just fine. I am not sure that there is a pressing problem in this country right now of fetal farming, but I will support it. Like my chairman, Mr. Barton, I have complete and abhorrent opposition to the idea of people doing fetal farming.

I must say, though, that if people are worried about women becoming pregnant so they can be paid for making fetal tissue available for research, I want to point out that the current law already prohibits the sale of fetal tissue. Section 498(b) of the Public Health Service Act says: ``It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive or otherwise transfer any human fetal issue for valuable consideration.''

In addition, a yearly amendment that we do, called Dickey-Wicker, already forbids the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes. So while this bill is completely unnecessary, I guess we will just pass it today and move on.

But here is the real reason this bill has been fast-tracked from the Senate, why there is a second bill that will be fast-tracked from the Senate, and that is because of H.R. 810, the Embryonic Stem Cell Enhancement Act, which has been cosponsored by my friend MIKE CASTLE from Delaware and myself.

This important piece of legislation expands embryonic stem cell research so that the 110 million Americans and their families who suffer from diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, nerve cell damage and on and on, so that the bill would allow embryonic research to be expanded so that those patients can have hope for cures.

Unlike many other kinds of stem cells, adult stem cells and cord blood, embryonic stem cells have shown great promise in being a potential cure for these diseases. That is why a majority of this body passed that legislation on May 24 of 2005.

This is why the Senate is poised to pass that legislation with over 60 votes today.

H.R. 810 will go directly to the President's desk. Sadly, the President has announced his intention to make H.R. 810 the very first veto of his 6-year administration. He has signed over 1,600

bills, but he has announced he is going to veto a bill that could provide hope for tens of millions of Americans.

In order to do that, though, the President will need cover, since 72 percent of Americans support embryonic stem cell research, and that is what this bill, S. 3504, and its companion bill from the Senate will hopefully I guess give the administration cover.

There will be no solace, these bills, to the patients of America. These bills are merely a fig leaf to show that the veto that is happening is going to prevent the most promising research that could happen for all these patients, and so while I support S. 3504, no one would support fetus farming. Let us really call this what this is.

This is the first in a pair of fig leaf bills designed to give cover to the President, and I, for one, think it is a sad day when we are rushing to judgment on such an important research potential.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, S. 3504, the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006, which as we mentioned just passed the Senate a few moments ago, is important in the sense that it is Congress' way of saying that we need to ensure that the scientific research that we do is ethical, that what we do to try to cure diseases is always ethical.

I, frankly, very rarely find myself agreeing with people like Mr. Smith and Mr. Weldon on this issue. But in the case of S. 3504 I do, because I don't agree we should have fetal farming. None of us agree that we should have fetal farming. It is wrong, and it is unethical.

But nobody should again convince themselves that this bill has anything whatsoever to do with the great promise that embryonic stem cell research holds. In addition, S. 2754 which came over here just on the heels of the other legislation, this bill is also attempting to give cover to those who say that they want to support research, but they don't support embryonic stem cell research.

As I will discuss moments from now when we bring up that bill, that bill is no substitute for embryonic stem cell research. In fact, the greatest promise for creating cures to diseases that affect millions of Americans is H.R. 810 which, as we just now learned moments ago again, has now passed the Senate by a solid majority, bipartisan Members who consider themselves pro-choice and Members who consider themselves pro-life. The reason they support embryonic stem cell research is because the vast majority of scientists agree that research holds the cure to potentially curing diseases that affect 110 million Americans and their families.

I have a 13-page letter signed by many, many groups, universities, patient advocacy groups, all kinds of folks, and this letter says: ``We, the undersigned patient advocacy groups, health organizations, research universities, scientific societies, religious groups and other interested institutions and associations, representing millions of patients, scientists, health care providers and advocates, write you with our strong and unified support for H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act.

``Of the bills being considered simultaneously, only H.R. 810 will move stem cell research forward in our country. This is the bill which holds promise for expanding medical breakthroughs. The other two bills are not substitutes for a ``yes'' vote on H.R. 810.

``H.R. 810 is the pro-patient and pro-research bill. A vote in support of H.R. 810 will be considered a vote in support of more than 100 million patients in the U.S. and substantial progress for research.''

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Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, many have said that adult stem cell research can be a substitute for embryonic stem cell research. To those people I would say that is simply not true. I support adult stem cell research. I support cord blood research. I support anything that could help cure all of the diseases that affect Americans.

But those who say adult stem cell research will be a substitute are demagoguing that issue for political gain and that is wrong.

Dr. Harold Varmus summarized it for all of the hundreds of researchers and the people who have done studies when he said just this week: ``Compared to adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells have a much greater potential, according to all existing scientific literature.''

Some researchers have said well, maybe we can find cures through adult stem cell research. Some researchers have said maybe we could do embryonic stem cell research in alternative ways, but those methods have shown no promise whatsoever.

By way of contrast, recently researchers were able to create beta cells in mouse pancreases which then became insulin-producing islet cells. Even more recently, researchers were able to take embryonic stem cells and make nerve cells to help with nerve damage and paralysis. Adult stem cells cannot be used for that purpose.

So in fact, the only promise for many diseases like the ones I mentioned, is embryonic stem cell research. That is why, Mr. Speaker, it is all well and good if people want to vote for S. 3504. It is all well and good if they want to say they support these other kinds of research, but in truth the only research that the tens of millions of Americans will rely on is embryonic stem cell research.

In closing, our President has said that he will veto this legislation, H.R. 810, and sign S. 3504. I will say this to the President: In 6 years in office, over 1,600 bills he has signed, he has signed bills that make our budget deficit the worst in our country. He has signed bills that allow us to go to war against other nations. He has signed post office namings, and so many other bills. This bill, MIKE CASTLE and I, we drafted this bill to be very narrow.

We only allowed embryos which are created to give life for in vitro fertilization clinics and are then slated to be destroyed as medical waste to be donated voluntarily by the donors to be used for embryonic stem cell research. This is the pro-life alternative. This is the alternative that lets people, once they have had their babies for in vitro fertilization, say, I don't want my embryos thrown away. I want them used for medical research. I want those embryos to be used to save lives.

I just have one personal thing to say in closing. When people say that a 12-celled embryo is more important than patients today, I think of my 12-year-old daughter who suffers from type I diabetes. I think of the medical test that she does every day, sticking her finger. I think of the insulin that she must have to stay alive, and I say to the President, and I say to those that think that those embryos are more important than they are, I say, you know, come walk in her shoes for a day.

Come walk in the shoes of LANE EVANS, our colleague who cannot appear on this floor because of his debilitating illness.

Come walk in the shoes, unfortunately you couldn't walk in the shoes of our colleague, JIM LANGEVIN, who was paralyzed in a tragic gun accident and never walked again. And you tell all of those people that an embryo which is going to be thrown away for medical waste is more important than those people.

And that is why tens of millions of people will be watching this vote, and tens of millions of people will be watching the President this week. I suggest that the most important vote we can take is a vote for life and a vote for 810.

I want to thank my colleagues in the House for passing this bill. It was a bipartisan effort. And I want to urge them to think about that later this week if, as expected, a veto override vote comes to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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