Nine Governors Urge Senate to Approve Embryonic Stem Cell Research Bill 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 11, 2007
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — They don’t have a vote in the United States Senate, but the governors of nine states are urging senators to approve a bill that would force taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research. They claim the president is out of touch because he’s worried about the ethics involved.
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle and nine other governors sent a letter to senators urging them to back S. 5.
"Embryonic stem cell research holds the potential to cure some of the oldest and deadliest diseases — from Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s to multiple sclerosis," they said in the letter.
However, leading scientists say, for example, that embryonic stem cell research will likely never yield a cure for Alzheimer’s.
"Alzheimer’s is a more global disease, with an effect on numerous kinds of cells," Steve Stice, a stem cell researcher at the University of Georgia, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper. "That makes it much more difficult for a cell therapy to be effective."
The letter included the signatures of governors from Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, New Mexico, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.
Saying President Bush "is severely out of touch on this issue" it accused him of "forcing families to wait for vital research."
Yet, over the past six years, more than $130 million in taxpayer dollars has been devoted to human embryonic stem cell research consistent with the President’s policy not to fund the destruction of human life. Overall, more than $3 billion has gone to innovative research on all forms of stem cells.
Siding with the president, Concerned Women for America urged the Senate to oppose the embryonic funding bill.
"This over-hyped research would drag money and attention away from what patients really need – ethical treatments that work," CWA president Wendy Wright said.
"Scientists slyly admit, after proponents have whipped the issue into a frenzy, that embryonic stem cell research will not live up to its rapturous claims such as treating Alzheimer’s," she added.
"Politicians who vote for this bill insist that all Americans must be complicit in this unethical research even though superior alternatives — which are ethical and effective —are already treating patients," Wright concluded.
