mr. speaker , i thank the majority leader for yielding me this time . 
mr. speaker , i rise to vigorously oppose h.r. 810 . 
it is ethically wrong to destroy human life , and h.r. 810 would allow for federal funding to destroy human embryos . 
as a heart surgeon , i have dealt with life and death . 
i have held damaged hearts in these hands , and i have seen how powerful human emotions , coupled with hope , can be ; but human emotions coupled with false hope and misinformation are dangerous . 
embryonic stem cells have not produced a single human treatment and have significant limitations . 
they are prone to transplant rejection , prone to tumor formation , and there is a significant risk for contamination with animal viruses . 
proponents of embryonic stem cell research are certainly aware of these problems , and that is why they view h.r. 810 as a stepping stone to human cloning . 
adult stem cells have been used to treat 58 human diseases , and they do so without taking away what we are trying to preserve in the first place : life . 
yes , life . 
for example , heart disease , the number one cause of death in the united states , coronary artery disease , has been successfully treated with adult stem cell therapies ; and there have been 10 clinical trials that have been completed in human patients using bone marrow-derived adult stem cells to treat heart attack patients , damaged hearts . 
and in one trial , patients who were bedridden , not able to walk , were found to be jogging on the beach or climbing eight flights of stairs after successful treatment . 
mr. speaker , it is irresponsible to spend scarce federal dollars on false promises when there are certainly alternatives with existing treatments that do not create an ethical dilemma . 
and for these reasons , i oppose h.r. 810 and urge my colleagues to vote `` no '' on this as well . 
