How about that? Congress can occasionally do something right.The House of Representatives, today, passed the reauthorization of the “Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act,” a bill written by pro-life Congressman Chris Smith in 2005. The vote makes it so the provisions of the bill, promoting stem cell research with umbilical cord blood, are in place through 2015.
The landmark bill, HR 2520, was signed into law by President Bush in December 2005 and today's reauthorization was approved by voice vote.
On the House floor, Smith said "it remains one of the best kept secrets in America that umbilical cord blood stem cells and adult stem cells in general are curing people of a myriad of terrible conditions and diseases."
Umbilical cords are a rich, non-controversial source of stem cells, yet hospitals throw millions of them away each year because prior to the law the infrastructure required to properly collect and store them was not available. The 2005 law increased the number of cord blood units and stem cells available for treating patients and expanded research.
“That law created a new nationwide umbilical cord blood stem cell program designed to collect, derive, type and freeze cord blood units for transplantation into patients to mitigate and even cure serious disease and pursuant to the law, also provided stem cells for research,” Smith said. “The new cord blood program was combined in the 2005 law with an expanded bone marrow initiative.”...
Here's more from LifeNews.com
