Pence leads off Embryonic Stem cell debate

Mikepence.house.gov ^ | 5-25-05 | Matt Loyd

[Gipper08]

At the request of Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Congressman Mike Pence will lead off debate today in the U.S. House on a bill that would allow federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Pence’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, follow.

“I rise today in respectful opposition to the Castle-DeGette bill: A bill that authorizes the use of federal tax dollars to fund the destruction of human embryos for scientific research.

“As we begin this debate, I am confident that we will hear the supporters of this bill argue in the name of Ronald Reagan that this research is consistent with his long-held views about the sanctity of life. But it was Ronald Reagan who wrote, ‘we cannot diminish the value of one category of human life-the unborn-without diminishing the value of all human life.’

“The supporters will also argue that this is a debate between science and ideology…that destroying human embryos for research is necessary to cure a whole host of maladies from spinal cord injuries to Parkinson’s.

“But the facts suggest otherwise. To date, embryonic stem cell research has not produced a single medical treatment, where ethical, adult stem cell research has produced some 67 medical miracles. Physicians on our side will make the case for the ethical alternative of adult stem cell research and Congress today will greatly expand funding in this area.

“But the debate over the legitimacy or potential of embryonic stem cells is actually not the point of this debate.

“We are here simply to decide whether Congress should take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use them to fund the destruction of human embryos for research.

“This debate is really not about whether embryonic stem cell research should be legal. Sadly, embryonic stem cell research is completely legal in this country and has been going on at universities and research facilities for years.

“The proponents of this legislation don’t just want to be able to do embryonic research. They want me to pay for it and like 43 percent of the American people in a survey out today, I have a problem with that.

“You see, I believe that life begins at conception and that a human embryo is human life. I believe it is morally wrong to create human life to destroy it for research. And I believe it is morally wrong to take the tax dollars of millions of pro-life Americans, who believe that human life is sacred, and use it to fund the destruction of human embryos for research.

“This debate, then, is not really about what an embryo is. This debate is about who we are as a nation. Not, will we respect the sanctity of human life but will we respect the deeply held moral beliefs of nearly half of the people of this nation who find the destruction of human embryos for scientific research to be morally wrong?

“Despite what may be uttered in this debate today, I say again: This debate is not about whether we should allow research that involves the destruction of human embryos. This debate is about who pays for it.

“And it is my fervent hope and prayer, as we stand at the crossroads between science and the sanctity of life, that we will choose life.

“This morning on Capitol Hill I was surrounded by dozens of ‘snowflake babies,’ children born from frozen embryos…the ‘throwaway’ material we will hear about today. As I spoke over the cries and cooing of those little fragile lives, I couldn’t help but recite the ancient text about the choice we face today: ‘I have set before you life and earth, blessings and curses, now choose life so that you and your children may live’ (Dueteronomy 30:19).

“Let us do as Americans have always done in the face of the frail and vulnerable. Let us choose life, reject federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, that we and those precious children may live.”

You can click on this link for a clip of Congressman Pence debating Congresswoman DeGette last night on this issue.

[Gipper08]

You can watch Pence give his speech here.


http://mikepence.house.gov/multimedia/

[ConservativeDude]

Good post...I'm with you. Whatever Pence runs for, we should be with him. He (probably) can't win in 2008, but what the hell? Someone has to pick up the Reagan legacy and I don't see anyone capable as of today except this man. We all wish he weren't just a "mere" Congressman, but we will work with what we have. His leadership on the budget AND on social issues is first-rate. Yet he never has anything but a positive word to say about anyone, whether a Dem., or Delay, or Gingrich, or whoever.

This guy is the real deal, friends.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

We are here simply to decide whether Congress should take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use them to fund the destruction of human embryos for research.

Well said. All this hysteria about how we must immediately throw tax money at embryionic stem cell research because it will save lives reminds me of another issue that is long on hysteria and short on evidence:

Global warming.

[NeoCaveman]

I'll support Pence in whatever race he runs

[Austin Willard Wright]

Forget Pence. Ron Paul was the only principled person in this entire debate (at least among Republicans who falsely claim to be for smaller government). Paul was the only member of the House to vote against all federal subsidies in both bills. Pence and all the rest took the easy way out and voted to have Uncle Sam sugar daddy pay out subsidies for "good" research.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Ron "the Real Deal" Paul's courageous lone vote against all federal subsidies is mentioned here

[Gipper08]

I agree the Federal Government should not have a role in healthcare.Voting for and supporting HR2510 was the ONLY way to try and defeat HR810.THE FACT IS IF HR2510 had not passed we would have lost HR810 by more than a veto proof margin.Bottom line,the Ron Paul way would have resulted in BOTH bills becoming law and MORE increased spending(and Killing) The Pence way will lead to a Presidential veto and less spending(and less Killing).We should compromise only when we have to.Paul,however,is no conservative hero.His isolationist appeasement puts me and my future children in danger.This is 2005 not 1910.

[Austin Willard Wright]

I don't get your argument. Are you saying that Pence voted for a bill which he "really" opposes? If so, this doesn't sound very honest....or are you saying something else? Paul is not an isolationist. He is an ardent proponent of free trade. True, he opposed the Iraq war which he predicted accurately would spread us thin and lead to a continuing quagmire in a Bosnia write large,.

[Gipper08]

There are so many times when a appropriations bill or budget bill comes up costing us billions.Paul yells from the top of his lungs from the beginning all by his lonesome that he will not vote for it and he is irrelevant.Pence gets a group of conservatives together to go to leadership or go to the Cardinals to tell them as A GROUP this bill is
outrageous.Then Pence gets pork taken OUT of the bill.He saves us money.Only twice has Pence had to vote for a bill to save us money.The rest of the time he negotiates save us money,and then voted NO.This year alone Pence has saved us Billions and Paul has not saved us a dime.

[Austin Willard Wright]

That's writ large.

[Gipper08]

What I am saying is The Pence approach will lead to a Bush veto.The Paul approach would have lead to increased spending and the killing of innocents.

[Austin Willard Wright]

You haven't cleared it up. Are you saying that Pence "really" is against increased subsidies for stem cell research as such but voted the opposite way as part of a clever strategy to prevent subsidies for embryonic research? If so, could you provide a source in which explains his "true" views (that were not reflected by his clever vote)?

In the absence of such a source, the more logical explanation is that Pence's vote reflects his support for bigger government in stem cell research, rather than some sort of "hidden" strategy.

[Gipper08]

I can't read Pence's mind.What I do know is that the bottom line is Pence won on Stem cells yesterday by keeping it from a 290 majority. Pence (and DeLay of course) saved money and saved lives.Did he have to compromise? Maybe.But there was NO OTHER viable option.
With a Bush veto we will prevent a slippery slope in Life issues.If we have to spend a couple of hundred million on umbilical cord research so be it.It will be worth it.I would like the fed to get totally out of healthcare tomorrow.But wishing doesn't make it so.This is chess not checkers.

[PaxMacian]

Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Psalm 139:13
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
14 :I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
15 :My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 :Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

Galatians 1:15
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,…

Isaiah 49:1 :
Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.

Matthew 18:5
And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

Deuteronomy 30:19
"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live."

Proverbs 6:16 There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood

Exodus 20:13
Thou shalt not kill.

[Gipper08]

Great reminders!

[Sun]

Here's the good news that I received in my e-mail from lifeissues.org.

The GOOD News!


We applaud the House approval of the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research
Act (HR 2520). This legislation, which passed by a vote of 431 to 1,
proposed by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), will create a new federally funded
stem cell therapeutic and research program for the collection and
inventory of umbilical cord blood.

We strongly support research and
advances using adult stem cells. They have proven effective in treating
over 58 diseases and conditions in humans. Importantly, they do not
require the deaths of other human beings to further science. Lawmakers
have also pointed to the dozens of cures and treatments obtained from
adult stem cells and the failure of embryonic stem cells to cure any
patients.

P.S. I wonder who the 1 was?? :)

[Happy2BMe]

I agree with this man . .

==================================

"“You see, I believe that life begins at conception and that a human embryo is human life.

I believe it is morally wrong to create human life to destroy it for research. And I believe it is morally wrong to take the tax dollars of millions of pro-life Americans, who believe that human life is sacred, and use it to fund the destruction of human embryos for research."

[Reaganwuzthebest]

I believe it is morally wrong to create human life to destroy it for research. And I believe it is morally wrong to take the tax dollars of millions of pro-life Americans, who believe that human life is sacred, and use it to fund the destruction of human embryos for research."

That is well said and most likely speaks for millions of people.

[Happy2BMe]

Is it too early to be talking about '08?

Trent Lott has a snowball's chance in hell in '08.

McCain is working the left hard and impregnating as many of the GOP with RINO seed as he can for '08.

Congressman Mike Pence one of the very few genuine conservative Republicans I see on the '08 radar, but the RINOs will likely devour him before then.