Pro-Life Congressman and Dr. J Team up For Adult Stem Cell Research Bill

A leading pro-life congressman and former Philadelphia 76ers basketball star Julius "Dr. J" Erving teamed up at a press conference Thursday to ask the Senate to pass a House-approved bill that would promote adult stem cell research using umbilical cord blood.

Stem cells from umbilical cord blood have proven to be the most effective and the House approved the HR 2520 434-1 in May. The bill has been put on hold because of the debate over using taxpayer funds for embryonic stem cell research. Smith is now asking for no further delay on voting the bill.

"Delay is denial, especially for the sick who will not benefit from cord blood transplantation because the Senate inexplicably delayed," he stated. "Make no mistake, for these sick children and adults, this is a matter of life or death."

Dr. J, the Vice President of the Orlando Magic, stated that African American patients need this bill, mainly because of the lower chance to obtain a match within the current bone marrow and umbilical cord blood stem cell inventories. Minorities have less than a 50% chance of obtaining a potentially life saving transplant.

"Each year, thousands of Americans die who could be saved if larger and more diverse inventories of umbilical cord stem cells were in existence," Erving noted. "I came today to join Congressman Smith in asking the Senate to finish the job and pass this legislation and provide doctors the resources they need to treat the thousands of courageous patients in desperate need of help."

Umbilical cords are a rich, non-controversial source of stem cells and hospitals are throwing millions of them away each year because the infrastructure required to properly collect and store them is not available.

Many people have been successfuly treated with cord blood stem cells for more than 67 diseases including Leukemia and Sickle Cell Anemia. With this bill aproved, this medical miracle will be available to thousands more and will ensure that research continues so that this source of stem cells can treat many other diseases.

Doctors and patients who have been treated with umbilical cord stem cells also attended the press conference supporting the bill that would promote adult stem cell research using umbilical cord blood.

Adult Stem Cell Research Bill