mr. speaker , this is a grand and glorious debate we are having today .  think of what we are doing .  we are debating the best route for achieving wonderful , healing medical possibility , possibility that would have been unheard of not many years ago .  but it is only possibility .  by definition , good research is always about possibility , about the potential of finding the answers to that which we do not know .  let me share three perspectives with you today .  first , that of a friend .  this is a picture of a family i know .  the mother , father and i trained together at the medical school in arkansas .  she was diagnosed with insulin dependent diabetes at age 7. she had early complications with retinal problems caused by the diabetes .  her husband is a doctor .  five years ago he had an accident and now has paralysis caused by spinal cord injury at the c7-t1 level .  this family has hope , realistic hope that sometime in the many years of life ahead of them , medical research may give them the possibility of cure or dramatic improvement in her diabetes and his spinal cord injury .  second , as a family doctor , i practiced medicine .  my patients and i relied on past research done by many good scientists striving in an ethical manner to end the harsh realities of so many diseases .  i know some of my friends in opposition to this bill today argue that embryonic stem cell research is junk science .  i do not share this view , but to those of you pondering this view today i say , let our gifted researchers , not us legislators , answer the unanswered scientific questions for us .  funded ethical research is not junk science .  premature conclusion is .  third , as patients , my wife and i have ventured into the world of fertility clinics .  we have met doctors and nurses all working hard to help couples have families , and we have studied and prayed over the patient consent forms .  the ultimate decision on what happens to unneeded embryos should be up to that fully informed family , and fully informed consent is part of this bill .  i support this bill today .  i do not know what , if anything , will come from this funded research .  that is why we do the research .  please vote `` yes '' for this bill .  