Mr. SCHIFF. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to address my remarks to some of the arguments that have been made by the opposition to the substitute: first, that other research will adequately substitute for somatic cell nuclear transfer; second, the policing issue; and third, the moral issue.
On the first issue, there is no adequate substitute for the science of somatic cell nuclear transfer. Adult stem cells do not have the same potential to differentiate. And even if you are talking about embryonic stem cells, the advantage of the somatic cell nuclear transfer is that the transfer will bear the DNA of the patient who is being treated and it will not be rejected by the patient. That is a vital distinction, because it will not necessitate the use of immunosuppressant drugs. So there is no adequate substitute for this type of research.
On the second point, that we cannot adequately police this if we allow this. As a practical matter and speaking as a former prosecutor, if we want to preclude any possibility of abuse, we not only need to preclude any kind of stem cell research, we need to ban and close down every fertility clinic in the country. When has it been the case that because of the possibility of abuse or criminality we would shut down important, vital avenues of research? That has never been the policy of the United States. It is one of the reasons we lead the world in research and one of the reasons we have to continue to lead.
Finally, on the most difficult question, and that is the moral question, the question of when life begins. This is not a question that we can resolve on the House floor. It is something we all bring our faiths to bear on. But what we can decide is whether we are willing to use the coercive power of the government to make that decision for everyone else; whether we are willing to use that coercive power to say that we will deny people treatment derived from this important science because some of us have a view of life that life begins with the fertilization of an egg or with a somatic cell nuclear transfer when others do not. I would urge my colleagues to deny themselves the benefit of that research if they choose, but do not deny it to the rest of the world.