Posted on 12/16/2005 8:59:26 PM PST by neverdem
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Congress on Friday agreed to establish a national databank of umbilical cord blood and bone marrow that would allow doctors to quickly find a match for patients who need a transplant.
The Senate passed the bill by voice vote. The House passed the bill in May by a vote of 431-1.
The bill will provide $79 million in federal funding to increase the number of cord blood units available for matches. The objective is 150,000 units, which would mean 90 percent of patients needing them would have a match. It also reauthorizes the national bone marrow transplant system, combining it and the cord blood in the same database.
"With the passage of this bill, we will now be able to turn medical waste, umbilical cords and placentas, into medical miracles for huge numbers of very sick and terminally ill patients, who suffer from such maladies as leukemia and sickle cell anemia," said Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., who sponsored the bill along with Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala.
"We are pleased that the Senate placed the importance of saving lives over politics with the passage of this legislation," Davis said. "The use of stem cells from umbilical cords represents a breakthrough of immense promise. This legislation will expand the inventory of cord blood units and will streamline the process for the receipt of blood matches."
The bill had been stalled while lawmakers have argued over a farther-reaching plan that would lift restrictions on stem cell research, which President Bush has signaled he would veto.
On the Net:
Information on the bills, H.R. 2520, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov
Merry Christmas!
Great news!
This is especially great news in light of finding out that stem cells from fetuses was bogus research.
But you won't find that on page 1 of the Slimes now will you?
Just how is this "Great news!"? What part of the constitution gives them the power to harvest umbilical cords a la soylent green? Who gave them the right to do this? What if you are some day identiied as a good "donor" but don't want to donate? do they then just take whatever body part somebody in the hospital needs more than you? What if the person in the hospital is Nancy Pelosi, who obviously needs your bone marrow more than you do? Does she get to take your bone marrow? How do these people get off thinking they have the right to develope a data base of birth waste? What benefit have stem cells concretely been deemed to have? All I hear is "potentially has potential", blah blah.
Seek, and you shall find. Ask, and you shall receive. Patients & Outcomes
A great worth indeed, thanks for the education.
The rest of my questions remain. One man's trash is apprently another's treasure, but what power does Congress have here? It seems to me that these guys just do whatever the hell they want. Both of my kids got social security numbers automatically from birth at a private hospital. In California, they go door to door looking for kids who turned 6 and aren't in the public school. The generation of databases is the single largest hit to civil liberty we have ever seen. Once they have these cords, they hold your DNA.
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