Supporters of Embryonic Stem Cell Research Say…

Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Director, National Institutes of Health

Dr. Zerhouni stated his support for federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, a clear split from President Bush. Dr. Zerhouni vowed to “always stick to the scientific truth” and stated that “disease knows no politics.”

He also dismissed arguments that adult stem cells negate the need for embryonic stem cell research.

The following are quotes from his testimony:

“It is clear today that American science will be better served and the nation would be better served if we let our scientists have access to more cell lines.” Zerhouni said, “It is in the best interest of our scientists, our science, our country that we find ways—that the nation finds a way—to allow the science to go full speed on both adult and embryonic stem cell research.

“It is very clear from my point of view that the current cell lines will not be sufficient to do the research we want to do… It’s not possible for me to see how we can continue the momentum of science and in stem cell research with the lines we currently have.

“I think it is important for us not to fight with one hand behind our back on this… To sideline NIH is shortsighted. We need to find a way to move forward… I hope we can do that soon.”

- Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Director, National Institutes of Health

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan

“Science has presented us with a hope called stem-cell research, which may provide our scientists with answers that have so long been beyond our grasp,” she said. “I just don’t see how we can turn our backs on this—there are just so many diseases that can be cured, or at least helped. We have lost so much time already, and I just really can’t bear to lose any more.”

- Former First Lady Nancy Reagan

Michael J. Fox, Founder, Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research

“Personally, I can’t think of a greater affirmation of the culture of life than to advance the fight against disease by increasing federal funding for biomedical research. Equally crucial is to remove undue restrictions on important paths forward, including embryonic stem cell research. America is about optimism, about promise, about always moving forward. The idea of rejecting one of the most promising areas of research is shortsighted. We have no way of knowing where the next breakthrough will emerge.”

- Michael J. Fox, Founder, Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research

Mary Tyler Moore, International Chairman, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

“We all want to see the promise of this research realized and delivered sooner rather than later. So now is the time for all of us — Congress, scientists, organizations like JDRF, and patients – to join hands with the Administration to update the policy, to better reflect what we know about the promise and realities of stem cell science.”

- Mary Tyler Moore, International Chairman, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

Dr. Douglas Melton, Co-Director, Harvard Stem Cell Institute

“There are camps for adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells,” says Douglas Melton, “But these camps only exist in the political arena. There is no disagreement among scientists over the need to aggressively pursue both in order to solve important medical problems.”

- Dr. Douglas Melton, Co-Director, Harvard Stem Cell Institute

Dr. James Willerson, President, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

“Adult stem cells [are] clearly good enough for certain purposes and yet limited in some ways. Embryonic stem cells…will be necessary to do everything we want in tissue repair, even replacement of an organ.”

-Dr. James Willerson, President, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Dr. James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin – Madison

“The debate regarding whether adult stem cells or embryonic stem cells are ‘better’ is a creation of politics and the press, not of the scientific community. I know of no credible stem cell scientist that does not believe that both should be studies; human medicine will suffer if either is excluded.” If politics were not involved, “the field of embryonic stem cell research would be much more advanced than it is today. … It is difficult to estimate just how damaging the current restrictions have been to the field to date, but if the current restrictions are not eventually lifted, patients will suffer needlessly.”

- Dr. James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin – Madison

Dr. Hans Kierstead, University of California’s Reeve-Irvine Research Center

“I have never seen in my career a biological tool as powerful as the stem cells. It addresses every single human disease.” And, in response to the comment “But there are people who say that that [hESC] is life,…I think the use of human embryonic stem cells is an ethical and responsible thing to do with tissue that would have been destroyed in the discards of a fertility clinic…So, let’s use it instead of discarding it. Why discard it? If you think that that is a holy thing, then value it, treasure it and keep it. Use it for research and the betterment of lives, don’t throw it away.”

More Testimonials …

Stem cell research, including embryonic forms, “is of great importance and will produce and provide the knowledge that will be useful to society and hopefully will cure a whole array of diseases for which we have no cures at the present time.”

-Dr. Michael DeBakey, addressing the Stem Cell Policy and Advocacy Summit hosted by

Baylor College of Medicine and Genetics Policy Institute, 6/11/05

“I believe that human life begins in the womb, not a petri dish or refrigerator,” … “To me, the morality of the situation dictates that embryos, which are routinely discarded, be used to improve and extend life. The tragedy would be in not using these embryos to save lives.”

- Senator Orrin Hatch, (R-UT)

“I support stem cell research. I think it is very, very important that the whole nation pulls together on a federal and a state level.”

-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, ABC News interview, June 10, 2004

“The concern of many opponents of the research has been that stem cells derived from human embryos would potentially destroy life. The fact is that the only human embryos that are used as a basis for stem-cell research are those that would otherwise be discarded from in vitro fertilization clinics. This is not a matter of using a human embryo that has the potential to produce life. Rather, these otherwise discarded embryos ave the potential to save lives.”

- Senator Arlen Specter, (R-PA), OpEd in The Forward, May 21, 2004

“Stem cell therapies have the potential to do for chronic diseases what antibiotics did for infectious diseases. It is going to take years of serious research to get there, but as a neurologist, I believe the prospect of a ‘penicillin’ for Parkinson’s is a potential breakthrough that we must pursue. As in other areas of creative endeavor in science, the answers will come only with careful experimentation.”

- Joseph Martin, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University

“As people of faith we are called to be partners with God in healing and in the alleviation of human pain and suffering. With careful regulation, we affirm the use of stem cell tissue for research that may result in the restoring of health to those suffering from serious illness.”

-Presbyterian Church, USA

© Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research