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   Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise today to address the issue of embryonic stem cell research and cloning. The two issues are inexplicably tied together. I want to discuss this in the narrow context of Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and cloning. The two are tied together in what is currently being discussed. They take an embryo, raise it to a certain age, kill the embryo, take the stem cell out of the embryo--the young stem cells inside that are reproducing on a rapid basis--and use those in research, or use those for human development and in the capacity of making other organs in the future.

   The next step will be to take the Presiding Officer's DNA material, my DNA material, the Official Reporter's DNA material, or the DNA material of some of the new interns, take it out, and put it into an embryo that has been denuclized, take that DNA material, put it into the embryo, and start the growth that is again taking place so you will have a cloned individual.

   That is an individual who has exactly the same DNA as somebody else. Scientists grow it to a certain age, kill the embryo, and take those stem cells from that embryo to be used to make an organ, or make brain cells, or make something else.

   These two topics are tied together. It is a gate which shouldn't open.

   Initially, I think we need to talk about Federal funding in Congress. We need to discuss the issue raised regarding Federal funding of destructive embryonic research. My position is that federally funded human embryonic stem cell research is illegal, it is immoral, and it is unnecessary for where we are and what we know today. We have other solutions that are legal, ethical, moral, and superior to where we are going with these Federal funds today regarding embryonic stem cell research and cloning.

   The issue of destructive embryo research has come into better focus over the past few weeks as the new administration prepares to take definitive action on the Clinton-era guidelines which call the destruction of human embryos for the purposes of subsequent federal funding for the cells that have been derived through the process of embryo destruction.

   Currently, we say, OK. You can't destroy the embryo, but you can use what is taken from the destruction of

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   Well, that doesn't seem to be right to most of us. It certainly doesn't seem to be right to me, nor the Presiding Officer. Yet that is what is being proposed, and currently taking what applies under the Clinton-era guidelines which call for the destruction of human embryos for the purpose of subsequent Federal funding for the cells that have been derived from the process of embryo destruction.

   During the Presidential campaign, then Governor Bush stated, in response to a questionnaire, ``I oppose using Federal funds to perform fetal tissue research from induced abortions. Taxpayer funds should not underwrite research that involves the destruction of live human embryos.''

   Later, after assuming the Presidency, his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, stated that the President, ``would oppose federally funded research for experimentation on embryonic stem cells that require live human embryos to be discarded or destroyed.''

   I would like to applaud the President for his bold and principled stand in defense of the most innocent human life. It has never been, and it will never be, acceptable to kill one person for the benefit of another--no matter how big, or how promising the purported benefit.

   Few issues make this point as clearly as the issue of destructive embryo research.

   As my colleagues are well aware, Congress outlawed federal funding for harmful embryo research in 1996 and has maintained that prohibition ever since. The ban is broad-based and specific; funds cannot be used for ``research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.'' The intent of Congress is clear--if a research project requires the destruction of human embryos no federal funds should be used for that project.

   The NIH, during the Clinton administration, published guidelines that sought to circumvent this language. At the time, several of my colleagues, and myself, sent a letter to the NIH stating our opposition to the guidelines.

   It read, in part,

   Despite their title, the NIH guidelines do not regulate stem cell research. Rather, they regulate the means by which researchers may obtain and destroy live human embryos in order to receive Federal funds for subsequent stem cell research. Clearly, the destruction of human embryos is an integral part of the contemplated research, in violation of the law.

   That is simply because to get embryonic stem cells you have to kill the embryo. You kill an embryo to ``harvest'' stem cells and use them. This is destructive human embryonic research.

   The letter that I cited was signed by, among others, Senators TRENT LOTT, DON NICKLES, JOHN MCCAIN, MICHAEL DEWINE, and JOHN ASHCROFT.

   I ask unanimous consent that this letter be printed in the RECORD.

   There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

   WASHINGTON, DC,

   February 4, 2000.
STEM CELL GUIDELINES,
NIH Office of Science Policy,
Bethesda, MD.

   TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: Since 1996 Congress has banned federal funding for ``research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed.'' We believe the draft guidelines published December 2 by the National Institutes of Health for ``human pluripotent stem cell research'' do not comply with this law, which we support and which remains in effect.

   Despite their title, the NIH guidelines do not regulate stem cell research. Rather, they regulate the means by which researchers may obtain and destroy live human embryos in order to receive federal funds for subsequent stem cell research. Clearly, the destruction of human embryos is an integral part of the contemplated research, in violation of the law.

   Because Congress never intended for the Executive Branch to facilitate destructive embryo research, we urge the National Institutes of Health to withdraw these guidelines as contrary to the law and Congressional intent.
Sam Brownback, Pete V. Domenici, Don Nickles, George V. Voinovich, Trent Lott, John Ashcroft, Chuck Hagel, Rick Santorum, Kit Bond, Bob Smith, Rod Grams, John Kyl, Jeff Sessions, Michael B. Enzi, Mike DeWine, Jesse Helms, Tom Harkin, Conrad Burns, Jim Bunning, John McCain.

   Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, in order to provide the justification for the NIH guidelines, the Department of Health and Human Services wrote a legal opinion reviewing the ban just mentioned above and whether or not Federal money could be used to conduct research on so-called human pluripotent stem cells that had been derived from an embryo. My conclusion--and that of many of my colleagues--is that this research is illegal. it is illegal for this reason: the deliberate killing of a human embryo is an essential component of the contemplated research; and without the destruction of the embryo the proposed research would be impossible, which brings us to a discussion of the morality of this research.

   Recently there was a bill introduced, the Stem Cell Research Act of 2001, seemingly based on the NBAC recommendations, which seeks to allow Federal funding for researchers to kill living human embryos.

   Under this bill federal researchers would be allowed to obtain their own supply of living human embryos, which they would then be allowed to kill for research purposes.

   The very act of harvesting cells from live human embryos results in the death of the embryo. Therefore, if enacted, this bill would result in the deliberate destruction of human embryos--human life in its most infant stage.

   This bill even violates current Federal policy on fetal tissue, which allows harvesting of tissue only after an abortion was performed for other reasons and the unborn child is already dead. Under this bill, the Federal Government will use tax dollars to kill live embryos for the immediate and direct purpose of using their parts for research. Is that something that we want to do? I don't think so.

   Taxpayer funding of this research is problematic for a variety of reasons. First among those concerns is that if Congress were to approve this bill, it would officially declare for the first time in our Nation's history that Government may exploit and destroy human life for its own, or somebody else's purposes. We don't want to go there.

   Human embryonic stem cell research is also unnecessary.

   I think there is a point that is lost to many in the broader debate about when human life begins. Where should we protect it, and how do we protect? But the point is that human embryonic stem cell research, and, thus, cloning, is also unnecessary.

   There are legitimate areas of research which are showing more promise than embryonic stem cell research, areas which do not create moral and ethical difficulties.

   In the past, Congress has increased funding for NIH. New advances in adult stem cell research, being reported almost weekly, show more promise than destructive embryo research, and I believe should receive a significant increase in funding.

   The Presiding Officer, myself, and everyone else in the room have stem cells within us.

   It has been a discovery within the past couple of years. These stem cells reproduce other cells within our body. We have them in our fat tissue, our bones, and our brain. These are cells that can now be taken out, grown, and they have multiple actions of other material, other tissue they can replace. It is very exciting and very promising.

   It does not have the ethical problems of killing another life and does not have the immune rejection problems like taking DNA material from another life and putting it into someone else. It is our own DNA. It is our own material, and it is showing great promise. I want to read some of the significant advances that have taken place in recent times in adult stem cell research, which I strongly support, and I support our increasing funding in a substantial way for adult stem cell research.

   Research has shown the pluripotent nature of adult stem cells. In other words, they can have a multitude of options. Research shows the ability of a single adult bone marrow stem cell to repopulate the bone marrow, forming functional marrow and blood cells, and also differentiating into functional cells of liver, lung, gastrointestinal tract--esophagus, stomach, intestine, colon--and skin, with indications it

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   In other words, these stem cells can go to the place where the damage is and start to reproduce and build up the damaged material.

   This was a May 4, 2001, study that was just released on this pluripotent nature of adult stem cells. Adult stem cells can repair cardiac damage.

   Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine found adult bone marrow stem cells could form functional heart muscle and blood

   vessels in mice which had heart damage. They note their results demonstrate the potential of adult bone marrow stem cells for heart repair and suggest a therapeutic strategy that eventually could benefit patients with heart attacks. The results also suggest that circulating stem cells may naturally contribute to repair of tissues.

   Also, scientists at Duke University Medical Center showed that adult stem cells from a liver could transform into heart tissue when injected into mice. They say, ``Recent evidence suggests that adult-derived stem cells, like their embryonic counterparts, are pluripotent.......'' They have a multitude of options of this stem cell conforming into bone, heart, and other types of tissue, and ``these results demonstrate adult liver-derived stem cells respond to the tissue microenvironment.......''

   In other words, what is the environment that the tissue is placed into, and that is what it is responding to and developing.

   Researchers at New York Medical College report results that show regeneration of heart muscle is possible after heart attack, possibly from heart adult stem cell.

   I have several others I want to read, but one in particular I think is interesting is that scientists have found stem cells in our fat. So now we can take fat stem cells, of which we do not have a shortage in America, and those adult stem cells can be derived and made into other types of cells and grown.

   A new report shows umbilical cord blood can provide effective treatment of various blood disorders in adults. It had previously been assumed that there were too few stem cells in cord blood to treat adults and only children were treated.

   The results of this study show that cord blood stem cells can proliferate extensively and provide sufficient numbers of cells for adult treatments.

   My point is we do not have to destroy another life to have the great success of stem cell work. We can take it out of our own bodies. We can take it out of our own fat and be able to grow these things, and we do not need to go down the route of what is called therapeutic cloning, to which destructive embryonic stem-cell research is going to lead.

   In the future, people are going to say they want embryonic stem cells, but what they really want is to be able to clone you, to clone another individual, take that DNA material from you, from me, from somebody in this room, destroy a young human embryo, put the DNA material in there, start this to reproducing for a while, kill that embryo, take the stem cells out, and work with those because they are exact copies of the DNA from us. We do not want to open this door of going the route of cloning, and that is where this is leading.

   Mr. President, that is why today I have spoken out on this topic. We should not be going this route. We do not need to go this route. It is illegal for us currently to go this route. I ask that we stop. This is a view that I believe the President shares. In fact, in a letter written to the Culture of Life Foundation, President Bush states:

   I oppose Federal funding for stem-cell research that involves destroying living human embryos.

   I ask unanimous consent that the President's letter be printed in the RECORD.

   There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

   THE WHITE HOUSE,

   Washington, DC, May 18, 2001.
Mr. ROBERT A. BEST,
President, The Culture of Life Foundation, Inc., Washington, DC.

   DEAR MR. BEST: Thank you for your letter about the important issue of stem cell research.

   I share your concern and believe that we can and must do more to find the causes and cures of diseases that affect the lives of too many Americans.

   That's why I have proposed to double funding for National institutes of Health medical research on important diseases that affect so many American families, such as breast cancer. My proposal represents the largest funding increase in the Institutes' history, I also have called for an extension of the Research and Development tax credit to help encourage companies to continue research into life-saving treatments.

   I oppose Federal funding for stem-cell research that involves destroying living human embryos. I support innovative medical research on life-threatening and debilitating diseases, including promising research on stem cells from adult tissue.

   We have the technology to find these cures, and I want to make sure that the resources are available as well. Only through a greater understanding through research will we be able to find cures that will bring new hope and health to millions of Americans.

   Sincerely,
GEORGE W. BUSH.

   Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I fully anticipate that President Bush will settle the issue of Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research within the context of the existing embryo research ban in the very near future, and I hope we take up the issue of cloning and ban it. It is a place we should not and do not need to go. I applaud the President in advance for his defense, for his clear statement on cloning, as well, and his defense of the most innocent human life.

   I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.

   The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The time of the Senator from Kansas has expired.

   Under previous order, the time until 11:30 a.m. is under the control of the Senator from Illinois, Mr. Durbin, or his designee. The Senator from South Carolina, Mr. Hollings, controls 10 minutes of that time.

END