AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY
DAP Stem Cell Speech
ColumbiaUniversity
April 11, 2006
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My topic today is stem cell research and its increasing importance for New YorkState.
This research is a vital health issue, a vital economic issue, and a great scientific challenge. Unfortunately it has also become a political football.
I am honored that Eliot Spitzer has asked me to direct our administration’s policy on stem cell research. So let me make my and Eliot Spitzer’s position clear. We strongly support stem cell research. When we win the election in November, stem cell research will be a centerpiece of our health care policy and once in office, we will aggressively support it in New YorkState. We will pass laws to allow stem cell research in New York. And we will allocate and direct hundreds of millions of dollars to assist New York’s researchers, labs, and hospitals to keep cutting-edge stem cell research here in New York.
We support stem cell research so strongly for medical, economic, and scientific reasons. Let me explain what I mean by that.
The Medical Ramifications of Stem Cell Research
I want you to use your imagination. Imagine a time when there are no children with diabetes because we can give them new insulin cells. Imagine a time when there is a cure for cancer. Imagine a time when caring for an elderly parent with Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease is a foreign concept. Imagine a time when an amputee can have a new leg better then new and that there are no more spinal cord injury patients. Finally, imagine a world with no blindness. Can you imagine that? I can. It is all now possible in our lifetime. In stem cell research lies the future of medical treatment, the science of today and tomorrow.
Within every cell of your body is the same set of genes. Cells grow up to do different things, some become liver cells, some become brain cells, some even make you want to be Lieutenant Governor. But the fact is they all have within them the same genetic code that makes you uniquely you. If we can discover how to control why cells become different things, then we can make them become things we need, an extra liver, an extra heart, or a new spinal cord.
This isn’t just theory. Stem cells are already being used in medical treatment and have been for years – I am sure many of you have heard of people who have had bone marrow transplants, in this case stem cells found in bone marrow and in blood from umbilical cords are used to treat patients with leukemia, sickle cell disease, and other blood disorders. Some conservatives dismiss stem cell research as “pie in the sky” – it isn’t. It’s about the medical research of today and the medical treatment of tomorrow.
There are of course important ethical issues involved in this effort. While pushing the boundaries of medical knowledge, there are boundaries we should not and will not cross. One important boundary – perhaps the most important boundary – involves reproductive cloning. Eliot and I draw the line at allowing or even pursuing reproductive cloning. There is a difference between healing and hubris. Reproductive cloning is hubris, arrogance, an area I feel that is beyond human wisdom.
The Economic Aspect of Stem Cell Research for New YorkState
Stem cell research is vitally important to medical advances. But the main reason Eliot Spitzer and I support a major stem cell initiative here is the contribution this research can make to New York’s economy. New York has traditionally been the home for many biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, the very companies that perform this research. In 2002, there were over 100 biotech companies located in New YorkState. A report by New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi found that in 2003 New York’s biotech and pharmaceutical industries employed nearly 55,000 people across the state and paid them $3.3 billion in salaries. These 55,000 people were well paid, averaging $60,000 a year, some 25% higher than New York’s average annual salary of $47,000. Furthermore, these jobs had economic spillover effects, creating the demand for support jobs and services. Each one of these 55,000 jobs in New York created on average one additional job. As a result, the combined economic impact of these industries supported a total of some 110,000 jobs in New York and created some $18.1 billion in economic activity, as well as generating $327 million in state income taxes.
And the future of New York’s biotech sector is bright. The federal government projects that biotech and pharmaceutical companies will hire 12.5 percent more people by 2012.
We want many of those jobs to be located in New YorkState. One way we can do that is to promote research in stem cells and other life science technologies. Comptroller Hevesi has estimated that new investment in life sciences in New YorkState could result in 7,000 new jobs directly related to the biotech industry and 15,000 total new jobs. This would produce an estimated $307 million more in state government revenue. These are jobs New Yorkers want and these are jobs that the Spitzer-Paterson administration will not simply aim to keep but to increase.
We cannot afford to do less. Just remember that our state lost 136,000 manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2003.
Our goal is to assist and reinforce the critical mass of highly skilled people working in New York on scientific and medical research. As a result of this research, New York’s medical community is more vital, more New Yorkers are working at higher-paying jobs, and New YorkState receives more revenue.
With stem cell and related research, all of New York wins. We understand that new breakthroughs require new investments. And we stand ready to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in this aspect of New York’s future.
The Role of New York’s Universities in Stem Cell Research
As I stand here today, within two miles of this very spot you can get the best medical care in the entire world, cardiac surgery at Columbia, organ transplantation at Mt. Sinai, orthopedic care at HSS, cancer care at Sloan Kettering, kidney care at Cornell Medical center and plastic surgery at NYU, just to mention a few. The greatness of these academic medical centers is related to the leaders they are in scientific research.
Upstate New York also has strong centers of academic research, including Albany’s MedicalCenter, the University of Buffalo, and the University of Rochester. And I am proud of the expanding level of care we have at HarlemHospital, NorthGeneralHospital, and St. Luke’s. We want to prevent any brain drain of our accumulated talent and supporting research at our universities is a critical step in this direction.
These institutions have brought top talent and funding to our state, upstate and down. The scale of their achievements have been recognized around the country -- from 2000 to 2004, New York ranked behind only California in the number of federal scientific grants it received. In 2004, the National Institute of Health awarded New York State 5,192 NIH grants worth $1.9 billion, up ten percent from 2003. And six cities in New York are among the top 100 NIH grant receiving cities in the entire country – New York City, Rochester, Buffalo, Stony Brook, Ithaca, and Albany.
Together, New York’s research institutions and biotech companies produced 486 biomedical patents in 2004, the fourth highest state total in the country. Clearly, New York’s stem cell research centers and its associated industries are among the nation’s leaders in innovation, funding, and importance. It will be our policy once in office to support them and attract further private investment into the state.
Spitzer-Paterson Administration Stem Cell Policies
These are the medical and economic reasons we aggressively support stem cell research in New York. But New York is coming late to the game of providing such support. California has already committed considerable resources to its own stem cell research efforts. In November 2004, Californians passed Voter Proposition 71, which provides $3 billion dollars over 10 years to fund stem cell research for the same reasons we want to support it here. Many other states have also proposed investing state money to support stem cell research. So there is now a bidding war for top research talent. The good news is that New York is already home to much of this talent. The bad news is that New YorkState has not even begun to invest the level of state money necessary to keep its current researchers and attract new ones. And time is running out. As of 2004, 40 states had economic initiatives aimed at attracting biotech research.
New York has been asleep at the switch. I promise you that will change in November.
Once in office, Eliot Spitzer and I are committed to the following five point plan to support and supplement stem cell research here in New York.
First, we will pass laws preserving the legality of research on all stem cell lines derived from excess embryos frozen at in-vitro fertilization clinics and that have received the informed consent of the donors. This is necessary because the Bush Administration has halted federal funding for all stem cell lines created after August 9, 2001. Today there are an estimated 400,000 frozen embryos at such clinics, where hundreds of embryos are discarded every day. We should immediately pass laws to use this resource to pursue potentially life-saving research rather than having them simply be destroyed.
Second, we will ban human reproductive cloning while protecting the legality of somatic cell nuclear transfer or what is known as SCNT. SCNT is an important research tool that should be preserved. SCNT should be allowed to continue because no sperm is involved, the egg is never fertilized, and no life is produced. But it is an important tool in stem cell research and we will preserve it against the Bush Administration’s attempts to criminalize it.
Third, we will create an independent bioethics review board to help craft guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research. We recognize that this is a controversial topic and we insist on obtaining the best guidance available. We will also review and implement the findings of the National Academy of Sciences on the ethical guidelines for embryonic stem cell research and SCNT.
Fourth, the Spitzer-Paterson Administration will commit at least $1 billion over ten years to support stem cell research and other life sciences here in New York. This funding will come from our proposed New York State Innovation Fund, which will be brought directly to New York’s voters to decide. This funding will help New York scientists attract additional funds for research from private sources and will position New York to attract substantially more federal funding if federal stem cell policy does change. Our funding mechanisms will catapult New York back into first place in the race to accelerate this field of scientific knowledge.
Fifth, we will establish an independent Stem Cell Commission. This commission will hold researchers accountable to the ethical guidelines to ensure public confidence, it will use a rigorous peer review process involving scientists from outside New YorkState to ensure objectivity, and it will encourage collaboration by allocating some large multi-site research grants to teams of researchers.
This plan demonstrates our commitment to make embryonic stem cell research in New York legal, vital, and ethical.
Federal Stem Cell Policies
By proposing this plan, we are doing more than simply helping New York regain its research leadership – we are protecting our state, our researchers, and our facilities from a dangerous doctrine coming from WashingtonDC.
In the past, the federal government led in cutting edge areas of scientific and medical research. Today, the federal government is blocking the way. On August 9, 2001, in his first televised Presidential address, President George W. Bush halted federal funding for stem cell research in its tracks. As a result of his policies, the NIH ruled that federal funding could only be used for research on existing lines of human embryonic stem cells, and now only 22 lines are left. This effectively banned federal funding for most stem cell research, which became even more damaging as we learned that all of the existing stem cell lines had been contaminated with animal cells, making them unusable for treating humans.
This is a symbol of the Bush Administration’s new federalism, of withdrawing the federal government from areas it had traditionally led. For example, President Bush allowed his Securities and Exchange Commission to hang back and let Wall Street run wild at the expense of individual investors, leaving it up to the states to fix the problem. As Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer stepped into this vacuum and forced Wall Street to play by the rules. As Governor, Eliot Spitzer will step into the vacuum George Bush created over stem cell research. Governor Spitzer will help push the boundaries of medical knowledge while putting New Yorkers back to work.
This is a golden opportunity for New York to lead the country, where states can serve as laboratories for new policies. Though the federal government now opposes stem cell research, New York and other states can serve to advance this research so that we can persuade Americans of its true value. This administration may not support this research but we in New York and elsewhere can make sure that their view is not the end of the argument.
The Intrusion of Politics into Science
Federal stem cell policy is part of another very troubling trend -- the distortion of science by politics.
We are all painfully aware that America is losing its innovative edge. American students are falling behind our competitors in math and science. In 2003, U.S. 15 year olds ranked 29th out of 34 industrialized nations in math. U.S. 12th graders ranked 19th out of 21 nations tested in science, outperforming only Cyprus and South Africa. This is a crisis of American education, which has created a crisis for our national future. Business leaders have recognized this and are calling for something to be done. The CEOs of Intel and Cisco have lobbied the Department of Education to improve our math and science education.
So, not only are Americans becoming weaker in science, the science we already have is being distorted by politics. This is not just a matter of losing life-saving medical advances. The politicization of science represents an abandonment of rational thought and human progress. This we truly cannot afford.
Let me be clear: Government policy and, particularly, government scientific policy, should be guided by science and nothing else. George Bush does not recognize this reality but we in New York do.
By contrast, there are many people of faith who oppose this research. I understand and respect their views. Their opposition stems not from selfish concerns, but from deeply held spiritual beliefs about the nature of life and the role of humans in a world created by a higher power.
My own religious background has taught me that the goal of Christianity and religion in general is to make the world a better place. In the Bible, Matthew 10:8 recounts how Jesus told his apostles to “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” In my opinion, stem cell research follows this teaching, trying to find cures that don’t yet exist and to treat patients who cannot now be treated. In my opinion, a truly religious health care policy would extend health care coverage to the poor, and make prescription drugs truly affordable and accessible for the elderly. A truly religious approach to health sciences would ensure that scientific advances would benefit the poor as well as the rich. In my opinion, a truly religious health care policy would end the contradiction of health insurance paying for Viagra but not paying for contraception. Although the Bush administration takes a different view, in fact science and morality go hand in hand. Science gives us the potential to make humanity better; it is our faith that gives us the moral imperative to make that potential a reality.
My friends, we cannot wait to press ahead with stem cell research. We cannot afford the willful blindness of the Bush Administration. We need to press forward, to improve the health care we can offer to all Americans, to improve the economy that serves all New Yorkers, and to use this marvelous science to improve the lives of all the people on this earth.
Some time ago, I went to the doctor and he checked my eyesight. Since I’ve been legally blind my whole life, it didn’t take very long. The doctor told me, “There’s nothing we can do.” I have never liked hearing that, and I understand how angry it makes people to be told, “There’s nothing we can do.” But for the children born today and tomorrow, there is something we can do. We can invest in stem cell research, we can support cutting-edge medical innovation, and we can push the boundaries of our knowledge of medicine. Most importantly, we can take the politics out of science and put science to work for the greater good.
Thank you very much.
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