mr. speaker , i yield myself the balance of my time . 
mr. speaker , first of all , i want to thank the majority leader , the gentleman from texas ( mr. delay ) xz4001040 , for the tenor of the debate today and for granting extended time and making sure all points of view have been heard on this important issue . 
although i am going to vote for castle/degette , i do not necessarily speak as an advocate for its passage as much as i want to speak about why i have decided to vote for it . 
i respect members on both sides of this issue . 
i made sure that members of the committee i chair , the committee on energy and commerce , regardless of their position , had an opportunity to speak and put their comments on the record . 
i come at this as a 100 percent pro-life , lifetime , voting member of congress . 
as i said earlier , this will be my second vote this year where i have not adopted the pro-life position . 
so i am not quite 100 percent any more , but i would think that 99.8 percent over 21 years qualifies me as a pro-life congressman . 
i have also voted numerous times for our defense bill , where we have voted hundreds of billions of dollars to defend our nation and put our young men and women at risk , some of them that might have to give up their lives . 
i have voted for many bills for our law enforcement officials , where again they may have to give up their lives to protect the common good . 
now , you might say , yes , but in those instances they were adults and they had free will and they voluntarily made a choice that they might have to sacrifice their lives . 
well , i accept and support that an embryo is a life . 
i agree with the gentleman from new jersey ( mr. ferguson ) xz4001320 that we were all embryos once . 
i understand that . 
and , obviously , at 7 days or 14 days , embryos do not have consciousness . 
they do not have free will . 
they do not have the neuro cells or brain cells to make a decision whether they want to voluntarily make a sacrifice . 
i understand that . 
but i would say this : if they did , out of the 400 , 000 that we think may be in existence , if you narrow that down to the 2.8 percent that the gentleman from texas ( mr. delay ) xz4001040 talked about that are probably not going to be used for reproductive purposes , if they did , would not some of them , knowing the stakes , volunteer ? 
it only takes one , the right one , that magic silver bullet embryo that creates that magic stem cell that can be replicated into any of the 200 cell lines that make up the human body . 
if i had that opportunity , might i not take advantage of it ? 
somebody would . 
and since they can not , because they do not have consciousness , under a traditional law in this united states of america we give custody to the parents . 
a parent will make a decision at some point in time , or a family member will make a decision at some point in time that perhaps they do not want to put up for adoption , which is the decision i would make . 
why not ? 
in addition to the cord blood bill that we have just passed , why not make it possible for some of these under the conditions in the castle/degette bill for some to be used for research purposes . 
it does not take many . 
i respect those who say , no , you can not do it at all . 
but i also say given a choice , let us err on the side of opportunity . 
that is why i am going to vote `` yes . '' 