Bush blocks funding for stem-cell research
Bush blocks funding for stem-cell research
Copyright by The Associated Press
Published: July 19, 2006
WASHINGTON President George W. Bush cast the first veto of his presidency Wednesday, rejecting legislation to ease limits on U.S. government funding for research on stem cells obtained from embryos.
"This bill would support the taking of innocent human life of the hope of finding medical benefits for others," Bush said of the measure to expand the funding passed Tuesday by the Senate. "It crosses a moral boundary that our society needs to respect, so I vetoed it."
Bush was speaking at a White House event, surrounded by 18 families who "adopted" frozen embryos that were not used by other couples, and then used those leftover embryos to have children.
"Each of these children was still adopted while still an embryo and has been blessed with a chance to grow, to grow up in a loving family," he said. "These boys and girls are not spare parts."
While both the GOP-run House and Senate defied Bush in passing the bill, supporters do not appear to have the two-thirds vote margin needed to override the presidential veto.
Pleadings from celebrities, a former first lady and fellow Republicans did not move Bush from his determination to reject the bill. However, lawmakers planned to try as soon as Bush issues the veto.
Bush's latest statement was following two days of emotional debate in Congress, punctuated by stories of personal and family suffering, that cast lawmakers into the intersection of politics, morality and science.
Strong majorities in the House and Senate joined sentiments with most Americans and passed a bill that lifts restriction currently limiting federally funded research to stem cell lines created before Aug. 9, 2001.
"I expect that the House will sustain the president's veto," said House Majority Leader John Boehner, Republican of Ohio.
Disappointed lawmakers said they intended to keep pushing to lift the restrictions.
Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, said in advance of the veto that the move "sets back embryonic stem cell research another year or so."
The Senate voted 63-37 on Tuesday, four votes short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override a veto. The House last year fell 50 votes short of a veto-proof margin when it passed the same bill, 238-194.
Bush has made 141 veto threats during his five and a half years in office, and the Republicans controlling Congress typically respond by changing bills to his liking.
Bush's stand against stem cells is popular among conservative Republicans that the party will rely on in the congressional elections this fall.
Those opponents are the same voters who have felt alienated by Bush's actions to increase legal immigration, and the veto could bring them back into the fold.
One conservative group, Focus on the Family Action, in Colorado Springs, praised Bush's "uncommon character and courage in his defense of preborn," while blasting senators who voted against Bush. "Some members of the Senate who should know better voted to destroy human lives - and that goes beyond cowardice."
Although many in the religious right are passionately opposed to stem cell research, most Americans support it, and Bush risks alienating that majority in the critical midterm year.
Bill would expand research
Andrew Pollack of The New York Times reported earlier:
A bill approved by the Senate Tuesday to spur stem cell research would go a long way toward removing restrictions that have slowed progress, burdened laboratories with red tape, reduced American competitiveness and discouraged young researchers from entering the field, several leading stem cell scientists said.
Still, some of the scientists said, even if the legislation were to escape a promised veto by President Bush, it would not remove all restrictions on federal financing of their work. And the legislation by itself would not immediately provide an overall increase in money for the research, just allow researchers to spend the money they have more broadly.
"It would make a major impact, but there wouldn't likely be a windfall of funding in this area," said Dr. Arnold Kriegstein, director of the Institute for Regeneration Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Some researchers hope the legislation would lead to more funding, though the federal research budget has been tight.
The legislation would end a policy put in place by Bush that restricts federal financing for human embryonic stem cell research only to cell lines, or colonies, that were derived on or before Aug. 9, 2001, the day the policy was announced. That would free scientists to use federal money to do experiments with stem cell lines derived in other countries or with private money in the United States.
Copyright by The Associated Press
Published: July 19, 2006
WASHINGTON President George W. Bush cast the first veto of his presidency Wednesday, rejecting legislation to ease limits on U.S. government funding for research on stem cells obtained from embryos.
"This bill would support the taking of innocent human life of the hope of finding medical benefits for others," Bush said of the measure to expand the funding passed Tuesday by the Senate. "It crosses a moral boundary that our society needs to respect, so I vetoed it."
Bush was speaking at a White House event, surrounded by 18 families who "adopted" frozen embryos that were not used by other couples, and then used those leftover embryos to have children.
"Each of these children was still adopted while still an embryo and has been blessed with a chance to grow, to grow up in a loving family," he said. "These boys and girls are not spare parts."
While both the GOP-run House and Senate defied Bush in passing the bill, supporters do not appear to have the two-thirds vote margin needed to override the presidential veto.
Pleadings from celebrities, a former first lady and fellow Republicans did not move Bush from his determination to reject the bill. However, lawmakers planned to try as soon as Bush issues the veto.
Bush's latest statement was following two days of emotional debate in Congress, punctuated by stories of personal and family suffering, that cast lawmakers into the intersection of politics, morality and science.
Strong majorities in the House and Senate joined sentiments with most Americans and passed a bill that lifts restriction currently limiting federally funded research to stem cell lines created before Aug. 9, 2001.
"I expect that the House will sustain the president's veto," said House Majority Leader John Boehner, Republican of Ohio.
Disappointed lawmakers said they intended to keep pushing to lift the restrictions.
Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, said in advance of the veto that the move "sets back embryonic stem cell research another year or so."
The Senate voted 63-37 on Tuesday, four votes short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override a veto. The House last year fell 50 votes short of a veto-proof margin when it passed the same bill, 238-194.
Bush has made 141 veto threats during his five and a half years in office, and the Republicans controlling Congress typically respond by changing bills to his liking.
Bush's stand against stem cells is popular among conservative Republicans that the party will rely on in the congressional elections this fall.
Those opponents are the same voters who have felt alienated by Bush's actions to increase legal immigration, and the veto could bring them back into the fold.
One conservative group, Focus on the Family Action, in Colorado Springs, praised Bush's "uncommon character and courage in his defense of preborn," while blasting senators who voted against Bush. "Some members of the Senate who should know better voted to destroy human lives - and that goes beyond cowardice."
Although many in the religious right are passionately opposed to stem cell research, most Americans support it, and Bush risks alienating that majority in the critical midterm year.
Bill would expand research
Andrew Pollack of The New York Times reported earlier:
A bill approved by the Senate Tuesday to spur stem cell research would go a long way toward removing restrictions that have slowed progress, burdened laboratories with red tape, reduced American competitiveness and discouraged young researchers from entering the field, several leading stem cell scientists said.
Still, some of the scientists said, even if the legislation were to escape a promised veto by President Bush, it would not remove all restrictions on federal financing of their work. And the legislation by itself would not immediately provide an overall increase in money for the research, just allow researchers to spend the money they have more broadly.
"It would make a major impact, but there wouldn't likely be a windfall of funding in this area," said Dr. Arnold Kriegstein, director of the Institute for Regeneration Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Some researchers hope the legislation would lead to more funding, though the federal research budget has been tight.
The legislation would end a policy put in place by Bush that restricts federal financing for human embryonic stem cell research only to cell lines, or colonies, that were derived on or before Aug. 9, 2001, the day the policy was announced. That would free scientists to use federal money to do experiments with stem cell lines derived in other countries or with private money in the United States.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 7:48 AM
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