Sen. Arlen Specter on the Bush stem-cell restrictions

This item is old (July 2005). But I had to pass it along. These comments were made during a hearing on funding alternative stem-cell research methods that attempt to get around the Bush ban. None of the proposed methods for deriving new stem-cell lines had even been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Bald and gravelly-voiced from cancer treatments, Specter said the debate itself makes him angry.

"Yeah, well I am, as a matter of fact," Specter said. "Try a few chemotherapy treatments and see how you feel" watching others debate medical research funding. "The potential for stem cells has been held in abeyance much too long."

Specter said he will lift his self-imposed ban on discussing personal matters on the Senate floor and frame the debate in intimate terms — including a "long list of my medicines and my ailments."

"And I'd like to see a million-person march on the (National) Mall," Specter added. "That's an idea that has run through my chemotherapy-occupied cerebrum."

Wired News: Bush Fiddles While Specter Burns