A brave speech

New York State Senator Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) is probably the most courageous of state senators in the country. I've posted his speech (with some minor spelling and grammatical edits) to the New York State Senate opposing a bill funding embryonic stem cell research in which he speaks the unvarnished truth. He is getting a lot of opposition for this speech, and when you read it, you'll see why. (If you're as encouraged as I am, please call his office and offer your support at 518-455-2511 or 718-892-7513.)

It's ironic that the bill he opposed was introduced by an Italian Catholic.

I don't think you'll find him backing down from what he said as some Vatican officials did when a certain someone said something similar.

My Position On Stem Cell Research
By: Senator Rev. Ruben Diaz

Ladies and Gentlemen, it seems that nowadays everyone is rushing to put together a stem cell research program. There are those that have called this the new California “Gold Rush.”

Last November, the people of California voted and approved proposition 71. This is an initiative to obtain three (3) billion dollars in funding over 10 years for embryonic stem cell research. This program will give out $300 million every year for the financing of stem cell research.

Many people have recognized and realized that this field of study has incredible potential for an economic tool. In other words, there is a lot of money to be made and a lot of people trying to get it.

Now, here in New York State, we have suddenly opened our eyes and we don't want to be left behind and out of the pot of money from the projected gold mine of stem cell research.

Ladies and Gentlemen, to make matters worse, and to be sure that we get into this gold mine, there are those arguing for and in favor of the embryonic stem cell research who have embarked on a campaign of misinformation, claiming that there are scientific reasons to believe that this research will lead to a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Nothing Is Further From The Truth!.

But as someone said, “people always need a fairy tale.” The truth of the matter is that scientists have allowed society to believe that stem cells will effectively cure Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers have apparently known for some time that the embryonic stem cells will not, and I repeat, will not be an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease. During one of the United States Senate Subcommittee Hearings this past month of May, two researchers testified that Alzheimer's disease is a whole brain disease and not a cellular disorder such as Parkinson's.

This opinion has been kept out of the news. But now, The Washington Post correspondent, Mr. Rick Weiss, has blown the lid off the scam. He has written an article stating that Alzheimer's disease is the least likely to benefit from stem cell research.

Ladies and Gentlemen, embryonic stem cell research is another and more sophisticated way for the continued killing of unborn babies in America. I oppose the direct destruction of innocent human life for any purpose, including research.

As I said before, embryonic research is simply another form of abortion in America. What is an abortion? Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy and the killing or the destruction of an embryo or a fetus.

Before January 22nd, 1973, a day of infamy in American history, abortions were illegal in most states and were only performed for extreme circumstances.

In 1970, Sarah Weddington, a young lawyer from Texas filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of a pregnant woman named Norma McCorvey. Ms. McCorvey did not use her real name, she used the alias Jane Roe. The purpose of this lawsuit was to overturn the State of Texas anti-abortion laws. The lawsuit charged that the laws were unconstitutional and that they violated women’s rights under the first, fourth, fifth, ninth and fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution.

Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade was the defendant in the case; Jane Roe against Henry Wade, therefore the case is known as Roe v. Wade.

Since that day of infamy, January 22nd 1973, every year there are approximately 1.5 million abortions in America. In thirty-two (32) years, at the rate of 4,000 abortions each day, we have killed and slaughtered 48 million unborn American citizens.

Ladies and Gentleman, abortion is the American Holocaust. I want to compare Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust to what is happening to abortion in America.

A) The comparison is plain: six million Jews were exterminated by Hitler in Germany. Almost 48 million babies have been exterminated in the abortion clinics of America. We have simply been in the killing for a longer period of time than Hitler.

B) Hitler believed that Jews were not human beings. In America, abortionists believe that a fetus and an embryo are not a life.

C) Hitler killed Jews en masse. America is killing babies at a rate of 4,000 per day.

D) Hitler used the ashes of the Jews to make bars of soap. In America, we are selling fetal tissue to be used in the manufacture of cosmetics as well as for medical research. What is the difference?

Do not point your finger at Hitler, we are worse. Do not look at Joseph Mengele’s medical experiments on Jewish children and say that you are shocked. Our abortion clinics are doing more extreme things than that.

Ladies and Gentlemen, why am I opposed to stem cell research using the embryo? Or what we call embryonic stem cell research?

Simply because there are other ways to do stem cell research without using embryonic cells. For example, there is stem cell research using adult tissue, blood from the umbilical cord and other sources such as bone marrow, blood, muscle, fat, nerves, and even in the pulp of a baby’s teeth.

Today, adult stem cells have been used to help people with Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, sickle-cell anemia, heart damage, corneal damage, and dozens of other conditions.

Ladies and Gentlemen, there has to be a fundamental commitment to protect and preserve the value and sanctity of human life.

We are crossing a fundamental moral line by supporting, promoting and providing taxpayer funding to encourage further destruction of human embryos. That is simply the killing of innocent human life.

Here in America, we like to be politically correct, so we just don't call it abortion, we call it pro-choice.

Let me tell you something about being pro-choice:

A) Hitler was pro-choice. He chose to send the Jews to Auschwitz. That was not the Jews' choice, that was Hitler’s choice.

B) Murderers and assassins are pro-choice. They choose to put a gun to your face and blow your head off. That is not your choice, that is their choice.

C) The baby in a woman’s womb will not choose the saline solution that will burn his skin away nor will he choose the forceps that will crack his little head off. That is not his choice, that is your choice.

Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, one of the goals of embryonic stem cell research is to be able to clone, create or manufacture another human life in a laboratory with the sole purpose of killing him or her to be able to use his or her cells for experiments.

This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the ultimate degradation of a fellow human being.

Therefore Mr. President, I am voting NO on this issue. I ask my fellow Senators to join me in stopping this madness.....this gold rush.... this disrespect for human life.

Ladies and Gentlemen, stem cell research is the reincarnation of Dr. Joseph Mengele’s experiments, this time on the unborn, the innocent, and defenseless human beings.