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Bush vetoes stem cell bill |
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By Klaus Marre
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Posted: 06/20/07 02:33 PM [ET] |
President Bush on Wednesday unsheathed his veto pen for only the third time, rejecting a bill that would allow federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
Bush said the legislation “would overturn today’s carefully balanced policy on stem cell research.”
“Compelling American taxpayers to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos would be a grave mistake,” the president said in a message to the Senate. “I will not allow our nation to cross this moral line. For that reason, I must veto this bill.”
The veto, Bush’s second on stem cell legislation, drew sharp criticism from Democrats, who argue that federal funding for embryonic stem cells could help find a cure for diseases.
“This is just one example of how the president puts ideology before science, politics before the needs of our families, just one more example of how out of touch with reality he and his party have become,” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, said Wednesday.
Bush signed an executive order that the White House said would “strengthen our nation’s commitment to research on pluripotent stem cells.”
However, White House spokesman Tony Snow acknowledged to reporters that the executive order would not add funding to current stem cell research.
Said Snow, “There’s been no administration that has been more aggressive in funding and doing outreach on the issue of stem cells.”
While the Senate is one vote shy of overriding the president’s veto and supporters of embryonic stem cell research have vowed to continue the battle in Congress, it is highly unlikely that enough votes can be found in the House to bypass Bush’s signature during the 110th Congress.
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