mr. speaker , i do not know why this debate has to be either/or , either we are going to cure sickle cell anemia or we have the potential to cure type 1 diabetes . 
every single american who suffers from a terrible disease should have the right to a cure . 
now , this bill that we are debating right now , it is a fine bill . 
i support this bill . 
i think cord blood research is important . 
like adult stem cells , umbilical cord stem cells have proven to be a source of hematopoietic stem cells . 
those are the ones that are the blood-forming stem cells that have been used for about a decade to treat blood diseases like leukemia and lymphoma . 
that is great . 
but it is not either that or h.r. 810 , because unlike human embryonic stem cells , stem cells from umbilical cord blood can not continually reproduce themselves . 
instead of proliferating , they quickly evolve into specialized cells . 
that is why they have not proven to be useful in some of the early studies . 
now , the opponents of h.r. 810 say , well , embryonic stem cells have not been used to cure any disease . 
that is because we are in the very promising early stages of that research . 
and the adult stem cells have been used in their narrow milieu to cure diseases and to help with diseases that are blood specific . 
mr. speaker , i am here to say that there is no , no scientific evidence today that will show that the cord blood or the adult stem cells will cure alzheimer 's , parkinson 's , type 1 diabetes , or the multitude of other diseases that are not blood based . 
now , some of the opponents of h.r. 810 say , well , scientific studies have shown adult stem cells to be pluripotent . 
number one , their argument , their argument is that embryonic stem cells have not shown clinical application . 
guess what ? 
neither have adult stem cells been shown clinically to be pluripotent . 
furthermore , the studies where there were some indications of that were not peer reviewed and , frankly , are rejected by the scientific community . 
here is a chart . 
this chart shows exactly what embryonic and adult stem cells are good for and , frankly , they are good for different things . 
so let us not muddle the science . 
if people do not want to do embryonic stem cell research , they can look in the eye of our colleague , the gentleman from massachusetts ( mr. langevin ) xz4002300 and others and say to them , we do not want to do the research that could cure your disease , and i challenge them to do that . 
in conclusion , curt civin , m.d. , who is a doctor at johns hopkins university school of medicine and a researcher , says `` as a physician-scientist who has done research involving umbilical cord stem cells for over 20 years , i am frequently surprised by the thought from nonscientists that core blood stem cells may provide an alternative to embryonic stem cells for research . 
this is simply wrong. '' and it is wrong to say either/or . 
that is why we should vote `` yes '' on this bill and h.r. 810 . 
