Politics How Would Mike Vote? Issue No. 2: Stem Cell Research
It took a while to suss out Washington state GOP U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick on net neutrality last month. How about this week’s issue: stem cell research?
Sen. Maria Cantwell, who spoke on the Senate floor today in support of stem cell research, is set to vote for the bi-partisan Specter/Harkin bill tomorrow. Here’s what she said on the floor this afternoon:
“We understand that by investing today we can save lives tomorrow. We cannot stand in the way of science. We must move forward and offer hope to the millions of Americans who need our help. I will vote for this bill tomorrow and I will work to overturn any attempts to veto this bill.”
Indeed, for his part, President Bush is set to veto the bill. Looks like everyone knows where they stand on this issue…
Well, everyone, it seems, except for McGavick, who had this to say earlier this month in Friday Harbor as he campaigned around the state:
“You know I’ve had briefings from both sides on stem cell research. And I’ve listened to people who have passionately different views about where to go on this one. And I continue to listen to them. I haven’t made a final decision, I will before this election is over. But I would note one thing. I tend toward science, I tend toward science. I tend towards human exploration of science. There are a couple of things though that we all have a nervousness about when it comes to particularly embryonic stem cell research. We have a nervousness about creating what amounts to a marketplace for fetuses. I think all of us would have a certain concern about that and we have concerns about places that kind of research could go that make us uncomfortable with the definition of life and cloning and some of these other things. So there are certain ethical frontiers that I think have to be considered very carefully along with science. But I tend to be biased toward science but I want to know how those boundaries are going to be well-established.” [Friday Harbor, 7/6/2006]
Perhaps McGavick has clarified his position since then. Team McGavick said they’d call me back to tell me how he’d vote on the bill and how McGavick would respond to a Bush veto.
I’ve linked Cantwell’s floor speech below. While McGavick sounds hesitant, Cantwell extolls the virtues of stem cell research.
I believe that Congress must not stand in the way of science. And I think tomorrow's vote is exactly what that is about. I want to be clear that I support that legislation and will work to overturn any attempt to veto this legislation.
Like my collogues, I have met these Americans who for too long have wanted to have hope. They have waited to have real hope that there would be a lifesaving stem cell research program.
Many Americans believe that we can do better. We know that there are millions of Americans who need help. We understand that by investing today we can save lives tomorrow.
And we understand what it means for millions of Americans who suffer from Alzheimer's or ALS or Parkinson's disease that it really does mean hope and a new way of looking at opportunity for them.
We will have a debate about this continuing today and tomorrow, but we need to keep in mind that it is good science that is at question here.
For us in Washington state with 35,000 Washingtonians living with Parkinson's disease today, understanding what embryonic stem cell research can do for them I think is of utmost importance.
We also have 300,000 Washingtonians who have been diagnosed with diabetes and obviously are very interested in this legislation.
There are 160,000 Washington state residents who struggle with heart failure and understand that there is so much that could be done in this particular area of research5,000 Washingtonians who suffer from Spinal Cord injuries.
There are people all over our state with various medicinal challenges who are looking to us to make the right decisions and to allow critical research to really give them promise and opportunity for the future.
At the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle...they are applying ground-breaking science and using adult stem cells to treat blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma, and various other diseases, and they are also looking to do the same for kidney cancers.
The Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason in Seattle is working with stem cells on a collaborative, five-year research project to "grow” a living heart.
The effort could lead to tissue-engineered replacement hearts and means that could help us with various challenges in that particular area of health care.
The University of Washington...boasts 70 scientists involved aspects of stem-cell biology addressing everything from liver disease to coronary heart disease.
Three years ago, the NIH named the University of Washington one of three exploratory centers for human embryonic stem-cell research.
But in the five years since President Bush banned funding for embryonic stem cell research, it's really as if our nation has turned our back on that science that would that could be doneI'm sure not just on Washington state, but that is a representative example of what could be done if we moved forward.
And it's important that we continue to move forward by passing H.R. 810
The truth is that right now adult stem cells don't have any where near the same scientific potential as embryonic stem cells. Their application is limited, their reach is finite. And we do have a better option.
Allowing federal funded research on the embryos that would otherwise be destroyed would provide a much needed expansion.
Everything in our past, from eradicating polio to mapping the human genome, our nation has always been a leader and an innovator in science and medicine.
Let's not fall behind now, just as we are challenged with so many of the diseases, we need to do more.
Of the original 78 stem cell lines, the administration permitted scientists to work with, only 21 are available today.
Labs and scientists must turn to private investors and already struggling state governments to carry on this critical research.
Researchers in my state say federal funding would increase research opportunities and allow scientists to use that money more effectively.
In March of 2006, UW announced that, because of federal funding restrictions, it would seek to establish a stem cell institute with private money instead and instead looking to raise $100 million in private funds to help it move forward.
UW's plans reflect the intense competition it faces from other universities around the country that are boosting research into stem cells, which have potential to treat a variety of diseases.
The competition will continue but we could be working together in a much more collaborative fashion in a way that would help us extend the scope of that research.
It's very important because so many of those involved in this particular area believe passionately that we need this new area of expansion.
One of those individuals, Doctor Torok Storb of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle said this:
"We have exhausted research on adult stem cells. They don't do the trick. We've worked with them for 30 years now and know that they do NOT make all the tissues in the body.”
He went on to say: "If the public wants cell-based therapies, then we must conduct this kind of stem cell research. We may learn from embryonic cells how to reprogram adult cells, but we have to work with embryonic cells to do it.”
This Congress, I believe, must not stand in the way of science. We have three bills before us tomorrow, but only H.R. 810 actually clears the way for the critical research that could lead to cures for so many debilitating diseases.
There is no viable alternative to the improved research and serious investment that I believe H.R. 810 will provide.
So when we are talking to Americans who suffering from these diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and others, I believe it's important....that we must keep in mind these stories of individuals...
I've heard from a mother in Renton, Washington whose 4-year old daughter died of brain cancer:
She told me: "This is such an important bill and holds the promise to move stem cell research forward, which in turn offers real hope to brain tumor/brain cancer patients and their families. It is possible that someday stem cells can help repair the brain damage done by brain tumors and cancer and the treatments to cure them.”
I've met with hundreds who struggle with diabetes everyday.
One Spokane mother wrote to me and said: "Just over a year ago my 10 year old daughter was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes. Since that time our lives have been filled with insulin shots, blood glucose checks, constant monitoring of food and activity and the thoughts of the devastating long-term complications that come with this disease.
"She has been forced to mature beyond her years and has had some of her childhood striped away. Embryonic stem cells have the potential to be used to treat and better understand juvenile diabetes.”
And I received this email from King County:
"I am a 45 year old man who was diagnosed with young onset Parkinson's Disease two years ago. This diagnosis changed not only my life, but the lives of my family and friends and made me re-evaluate my entire bright and well planned future ... To vote against Stem Cell research would greatly reduce my window of hope that this disease will not devastate me before this project is completed.”
These are just a few stories. But they are countless. The American people want this legislation to pass and become law.
They want their elected officials to get out of the way of science to stop legislating research. 72 percent of Americans favor embryonic stem cell research because we need to understand its possibilities and its potential.
Eighty expert Nobel laureates have stood up in support federally funded stem cell research.
A list of community organizations, research institutes, and advocacy groups a mile-long from the American Medical Association to the Genetics Policy Institute.
From Washingtonians for the Advancement of Medical Research to Northwest Association for Biomedical Research
We understand that by investing today we can save lives tomorrow.
We cannot stand in the way of science. We must move forward and offer hope to the millions of Americans who need our help.
I will vote for this bill tomorrow and I will work to overturn any attempts to veto this bill.
For the record here, embryonic stem cells are *not* made from fetuses.
ESCs are made from pre-implantation embryos (the in-vivo equivalent of day 4-5) or about 100 cells. Before one would show up positive on a pregnancy test. About half of all embryos at this stage sponaneously fail to continue. This is at a point before the embryo is even an individual: If you cut a blastocyst in half, you have identical twins. Mash two together and you have a chimera.
Further, every line so far has been made from excess embryos from IVF clinics. If they weren't used for this, they'd be bleached and sent down the drain.
Mike! is dipshit for publically conflating fetal and embryonic stem cell research. His campaign offices are across the street from one of the major embryonic stem cell research labs in the state. Perhaps he should take a short walk, pay a visit and pull his head out of his ass.