mr. speaker , reclaiming my time , i thank the gentleman .  i have here a very recent report , `` alternative sources of human pluripotent stem cells , '' a white paper by the president 's council on bioethics , and the next chart shows page 25 from this .  the highlighted part says : `` it may be some time before stem cells can be reliably derived from single cells , '' the process we have been talking about , `` extracted from early embryos and in ways that do no harm to the embryo , '' thus biopsy .  `` but the initial success of the verlinsky group 's efforts at least reaches the possibility that embryonic stem cells could be derived from single blastomas removed from early human embryos without apparently harming them. '' then there is an asterisk , and if you go to the bottom of the page it says : `` a similar idea was proposed by representative roscoe bartlett of maryland as far back as 2001 before the president gave his executive order. '' there are four potential sources listed here .  this source is number two .  they do a very good job of discussing this in the body of the text .  they talk about parents going for pre-implantation genetic diagnosis .  they talk about the possibility that you could develop from the cell or cells taken a repair kit .  this is a fascinating potential .  this is why we are collecting and freezing umbilical cord blood , because we hope that through the life of that person , there might be some opportunity to use stem cells .  they are not embryonic , they have limited application , but maybe , just maybe , we could produce something that would help that person later on with a disease .  but in this case , if they did preimplantation genetic diagnosis and if they developed a repair kit from that , then all that we would ask for is that a few surplus cells from the repair kit could be made available for a new stem cell line .  but that is not even what our research , our paper , our bill asks for .  what our bill asks for is simply federal money to do research on animals , on nonhuman primates , that is , the great apes , which genetically are remarkably similar to humans , if it works there , it probably would work in humans , to determine the efficacy and the safeness of doing this .  unfortunately , if all that you read was their recommendations , you would be disappointed , because they never therein mention that the parents have made an ethical decision to make sure they do not have a baby with a genetic defect , the parents who made a decision to establish a repair kit so that their baby at any time during their life could have available compatible tissue to fix a medical problem .  they simply state in their recommendation section that they consider it unethical to go to an embryo and take a cell out of it just to establish a stem cell lot .  it must be that a different person wrote the recommendations at the end as compared to the person or persons that wrote the text in the front , because they certainly should have mentioned the parents ' decision to develop a repair kit , the parents ' decision to make sure that their baby did not have a defect .  these are decisions that parents make , i think , ethically to the benefit of their baby and for all that we would hope in the future .  and , again , our bill deals only with animal experimentation to determine the efficacy and the reliability of doing this .  the next chart shows another development chart , and i would just like to reemphasize : now , imagine this is not in the mother ; this is an infant dibulum , in the ovary and the fallopian tube here .  imagine that this is in a petri dish and not in the mother , and we fertilized the egg , and it has now developed to the eight-cell stage , and we can take a cell from that stage and do a preimplantation genetic diagnosis .  maybe , as the authors of the white paper said , you could develop a stem cell line from that .  we do not know .  they simply have not tried .  it has been too easy to take and kill embryos to get stem cell lines from them .  there is one other ethical argument that maybe is a problem , mr. speaker .  they address this in the president 's white paper .  they do not think it is a problem .  when you read that white paper you will see that they are bending over backwards to satisfy all of the concerns that even the most concerned prolife person could have .  they do not believe that you could develop an embryo from a single cell .  but if we waited a little later , and i have asked the researchers , the medical people who are doing this preimplantation and genetic diagnosis , if they could wait until the inner cell mass stage , if they could wait until the inner cell mass stage to take the cell .  now we avoid even that potential ethical argument , because we already have a differentiation that has occurred .  there are now two kinds of cells in what we call the embryo .  there is the inner cell mass , which will become the baby ; and then there is the rest of the trophoblast which will become the decidua .  the decidua is the amnion and chorion .  now , you can not have a baby without amnion and chorion ; it can not grow .  so if you take cells only from the inner cell mass , they could never become an embryo because these cells have lost all of their ability to produce the decidua , but they retain all of the ability to produce the cells of the body , the great variety of cells in the body .  i am prolife .  i have an impeccable , 100 percent prolife voting record .  i would not be here on the floor today talking about a possible solution to this debate if i did not think that this was perfectly ethical and probably perfectly doable .  i hope , mr. speaker , that a number of my colleagues will sign on to our bill .  we are going to hold this until about noon tomorrow , because we would like to get as many prolife signers as possible .  if the other bill reaches the president 's desk , no matter what he decides , some people are not going to be happy .  if he vetoes the bill , as he has said he would , then all of those americans , and i believe it is a majority , as there will be a majority tomorrow that vote for h.r. 810 , will wonder why it is not okay to take these embryos that hardly look like a baby , just eight cells , to take these embryos , and they are going to be discarded anyhow .  and given the two arguments , they may not be discarded , they may be adopted , and at the end of the day , you are taking a life .  if you think it is okay to take one life to help another , that is okay , but a lot of people do not think that is okay .  on the other hand , if he lets it become law , then he is going to offend all of those prolife people who really see this as life .  what i hope , mr. speaker , is that my bill can be on the president 's desk when he is faced with the unhappy choice that he will have with this bill , so that he can now say , gee , i have a bill which supports what i want , and that is embryonic stem cell research without harming an embryo .  we are not ready yet to work with humans .  this bill addresses only animal experimentation .  but as we saw earlier , mr. speaker , from this chart that we had from that page of the white paper , let me put that back up because i think it makes the point , it may be some time .  that is why we have researchers and that is why we have money from nih , because it may be some time before stem cell lots can be reliably derived from single cells .  they believe that it is possible to do that .  it may take some time , taken from early embryos in ways that do not harm the embryo .  as we have pointed out , they will be taken to benefit the embryo , to do preimplantation genetic diagnosis and to develop a repair kit for the embryo .  but the initial success of the verlinsky group 's efforts at least raises the future possibility that pluripotent stem cells could be derived from single-blast embryos removed from early human embryos without apparently harming them .  indeed , if it is taken for preimplantation genetic diagnosis and to establish a repair kit , not only are they not harmed , they are benefited by it .  mr. speaker , i know that all america will be watching this debate ; they just voted $ 3 billion in alaska to pursue this .  i believe we can pursue all of the potential miracles that could come from embryonic stem cell research and applications to medicine without harming embryos , and i urge an early vote and adoption of this bill .  mr. speaker , i submit the following for the record : and human services , washington , dc , may 23 , 2005 .  dear mr .  bartlett : i am pleased that drs .  allen spiegel and story landis were able to meet with you , mr. otis and mr. aitken during your visit to the national institutes of health ( nih ) last month to discuss ways to derive human embryonic stem cells ( hescs ) .  drs .  spiegel and landis were serving as acting co-chairs of the nih stem cell task force during my leave of absence from this position .  earlier this month , i returned to chair the task force .  nih shares your enthusiasm on the therapeutic potentials of hesc research and thank you for your continued support of this field .  drs .  spiegel and landis briefed me about your april 26th meeting .  i am also aware that you have had previous meetings with nih officials , including myself , lana skirboll and richard tasca , on this topic .  you propose the possibility of using a cell ( or two ) removed from the 8-cell stage human embryo undergoing pre implantation genetic diagnosis ( pgd ) to : 1 ) create a `` personal repair kit '' made up of cells removed from the embryo and stored for future use ; and 2 ) for deriving human embryonic stem cell lines .  you suggested that creating hesc lines in this manner would avoid ethical questions surrounding the fate of a human embryo .  live births resulting from embryos which undergo pgd and are subsequently implanted seem to suggest that this procedure does not harm the embryo , however , there are some reports that a percentage of embryos do not survive this procedure .  in addition , long-term studies would be needed to determine whether this procedure produces subtle or later-developing injury to children born following pgd .  also , it is not known if the single cell removed from the 8-cell stage human embryo has the capacity to become an embryo if cultured in the appropriate environment .  nih is not aware of any published scientific data that has confirmed the establishment of hesc lines from a single cell removed from an 8-cell stage embryo .  we are aware of the published research of dr .  yury verlinsky in the reproductive genetics institute in chicago that showed that a hesc line can be derived by culturing a human morula-staged embryo ( reproductive biomedicine online , 2004 vo .  9 , no.6 , 623-629 , verlinsky , strelchenko , et al ) .  it is also worth noting , however , that in these experiments , the entire morula was plated and used to derive the hesc lines .  the human morula is generally composed of 10-30 cells and is the stage that immediately precedes the formation of the blastocyst .  at the april 26th meeting , nih agreed that such experiments might be pursued in animals , including non-human primates .  that is , animal experiments could be conducted to determine whether it is possible to derive hescs from a single cell of the 8-cell or morula stage embryo .  to date , to the best of our knowledge no such derivations have been successful .  nih also does not know whether these experiments have been tried and failed in animals and/or humans and , therefore , have not been reported in the literature .  nih agreed to explore whether there have been any attempts to use single cells from the 8-cell or morula stage of an animal embryo to start embryonic stem cell lines by consulting with scientists that are currently conducting embryo research .  from these discussions , these scientists believe it is worth attempting experiments using a single cell from an early stage embryo or cells from a morula of a non-human primate to establish an embryonic stem cell line .  of note , a recent 2003 paper from canada shows that when single human blastomeres are cultured from early cleavage stage embryos , before the morula stage , that there is an increased incidence of chromosomal abnormalities .  even with hescs derived from the inner cell mass of the human blastocyst , the odds of starting a hesc line from a single cell are long , perhaps one in 20 tries .  thus , the odds of being able to start with a single cell from an 8-celled or morula staged embryo are equally challenging .  this would make it difficult to accomplish the goal of establishing `` repair kits '' and hesc lines from any single pgd embryo .  ( fertil steril , 2003 june , 79 ( 6 ) : 1304-11 , bielanska , et al ) .  it is possible , however , that improvements in technologies for deriving and culturing hescs may improve these odds .  nih concludes that the possibility of establishing a stem cell line from an 8-cell or morula stage embryo can only be determined with additional research .  nih would welcome receiving an investigator-initiated grant application on this topic using animal embryos .  the human embryo research ban would preclude the use of funds appropriated under the labor/hhs appropriations act for pursuing this research with human embryos .  as with all grant applications , the proposal must be deemed meritorious for funding by peer review and then will be awarded research funds if sufficient funds are available .  it also bears keeping in mind that it may take years to determine the answer .  at the april 26th meeting , you had mentioned that twins can develop when the inner cell mass splits in the blastocyst and forms two embryos enclosed in a common trophoblast .  you asked if cells from the inner cell mass could be safely removed without harming the embryo .  in animal studies , it has been shown that the blastocyst can be pierced to remove cells of the inner cell mass and the embryo appears to retain its original form but it is not known whether the embryo will result the birth of a healthy baby .  since this experiment in human embryos at either the morula or the blastocyst stage would require evaluations of not only normal birth but also unknown longterm risks to the person even into adulthood , it would have to be considered a very high risk and ethically questionable endeavor .  because of the risk of harm , this research would also be ineligible for federal funding .  you had also asked nih about the latest stage in development that an embryo can be artificially implanted into the womb .  we know that infertility clinics transfer embryos at the blastocyst stage ( approximately day 5 in human embryo development ) as well as at earlier stages .  finally , i am providing an additional resource that was discussed at the april meeting .  i have enclosed a copy of a recently released white paper developed by the president 's council on bioethics ( pcb ) on alternative sources of human pluripotent stern cells .  in this white paper , the pcb raised many ethical , scientific and practical concerns about alternate sources for deriving human pluripotent stem cells without harming the embryo .  your proposal is specifically discussed in this report .  i hope this information is helpful .  sincerely , james f. battey , jr. , enclosure .  