Faye
07-11-2005, 10:27 PM
Specter to Air Anger Over Stem Cell Limits By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
7-11-05
WASHINGTON - Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), suffering from cancer, said Monday he plans to take public his anger over the government's restrictions on funding for studies on human embryonic stem cells.
"I think it's time that a little hell was raised about this subject," Specter, R-Pa., said in a telephone interview.
That time will arrive Tuesday, Specter said, when he gavels open the Senate's first hearing on his bill to lift President Bush's restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. It carries the greatest promise among such studies searching for cures to Alzheimer's disease and other ailments.
Set to testify Tuesday are four scientists whose research — to date neither published nor performed on human cells — could receive federal funding instead as alternatives to using human embryonic stem cells.
Bush and conservatives who believe studies on human embryos are immoral are considering bills to pay for such research in part to peel votes from Specter's bill.
That makes the Pennsylvania Republican, bald and gravelly voiced from cancer treatments, angry.
"Yeah, well, I am, as a matter of fact," Specter said. "Try a few chemotherapy treatments and see how you feel" watching the debate over medical funding.
Whatever the scientists have to say at the Labor, Health and Human Services subcommittee hearing, Specter wants his bill signed into law and federal money flowing to studies on human embryonic stem cells.
"The potential for stem cells has been held in abeyance much too long," he said.
Specter has plans beyond the hearing. He said he will lift his self-imposed ban on discussing personal matters on the Senate floor and frame the debate in intimate terms — including a "long list of my medicines and my ailments."
"And I'd like to see a ***million-person march on the Mall***," Specter said. "That's an idea that has run through my chemotherapy-occupied cerebrum."
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050712/ap_on_go_co/stem_cells_specter_1
7-11-05
WASHINGTON - Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), suffering from cancer, said Monday he plans to take public his anger over the government's restrictions on funding for studies on human embryonic stem cells.
"I think it's time that a little hell was raised about this subject," Specter, R-Pa., said in a telephone interview.
That time will arrive Tuesday, Specter said, when he gavels open the Senate's first hearing on his bill to lift President Bush's restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. It carries the greatest promise among such studies searching for cures to Alzheimer's disease and other ailments.
Set to testify Tuesday are four scientists whose research — to date neither published nor performed on human cells — could receive federal funding instead as alternatives to using human embryonic stem cells.
Bush and conservatives who believe studies on human embryos are immoral are considering bills to pay for such research in part to peel votes from Specter's bill.
That makes the Pennsylvania Republican, bald and gravelly voiced from cancer treatments, angry.
"Yeah, well, I am, as a matter of fact," Specter said. "Try a few chemotherapy treatments and see how you feel" watching the debate over medical funding.
Whatever the scientists have to say at the Labor, Health and Human Services subcommittee hearing, Specter wants his bill signed into law and federal money flowing to studies on human embryonic stem cells.
"The potential for stem cells has been held in abeyance much too long," he said.
Specter has plans beyond the hearing. He said he will lift his self-imposed ban on discussing personal matters on the Senate floor and frame the debate in intimate terms — including a "long list of my medicines and my ailments."
"And I'd like to see a ***million-person march on the Mall***," Specter said. "That's an idea that has run through my chemotherapy-occupied cerebrum."
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050712/ap_on_go_co/stem_cells_specter_1