Bush Cites 'Moral Line' in Second Veto of Stem Cell Bill

Jun 21, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By David Jackson

WASHINGTON -- Science, morality and politics collided Wednesday as President Bush again vetoed a bill to expand federal help for embryonic stem cell research. It's the third veto of Bush's presidency and the second involving stem cell research.

Bush said destroying human embryos to extract stem cells crosses a "moral line." Bill supporters, such as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said Bush is putting "ideology before science, politics before the needs of our families."

Embryonic stem cells are capable of becoming any cell in the body, and researchers say the cells hold the promise of generating tissue that could lead to treatments for diabetes, cancer and other diseases.

Bush told his supporters at a White House ceremony that he has signed an executive order to promote research into producing stem cells that do not come from human embryos but from such sources as umbilical cords and amniotic fluid. His order does not include any new federal funding. "Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical, and it is not the only option before us," the president said.

The Bush order is "nothing new" said Sean Tipton, president of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, a group that supports research on human embryonic stem cells. He said the National Institutes of Health "has already been conducting the research for the past 20 years."

The bill Bush vetoed would have expanded federal funding for stem cell research on donated embryos that would otherwise be discarded by fertility clinics.

The measure also would have overturned a federal policy in place since 2001, when Bush permitted federal funding of research on existing stem cell lines taken from embryos.

The bill passed Congress with bipartisan support, including 37 House Republicans and 17 Senate Republicans. Neither chamber drew enough votes to override a veto.

Bill supporters, such as Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., said there aren't enough existing embryonic stem cell lines on which to conduct adequate research.

Bush said the bill would compel taxpayers "for the first time in our history to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos." He said alternatives can also support cells that "have the potential to develop into nearly all the cell types and tissues in the body," known as pluripotent cells. His order creates a "Pluripotent Stem Cell Registry."

At the veto ceremony, Bush spotlighted patients treated with stem cells culled from the bladder and the bloodstream.

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, backed Bush: "We can and must find cutting-edge techniques to cure disease and ease suffering without destroying life."

Bush's policy does not ban research using new lines of embryonic stem cells. California and other states have been conducting such research, as have scientists at major universities such as Harvard and Johns Hopkins. Other countries, including the United Kingdom and China, have invested billions in stem cell research.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, created by voter initiative in 2004, is now the largest source of funding for embryonic stem cell research in the world. It has approved 136 grants to California universities and research institutions totaling more than $208 million.

Research is also ongoing using cells that are not from human embryos. The journals Nature and Cell Stem Cell reported this month that cells from adult mice have been genetically changed to mimic embryonic stem cells.

In recent elections, Democrats have made an issue of Bush's opposition to funding research on embryonic cells. Actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, stumped for Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., on the issue in her victorious 2006 race.

Contributing: Elizabeth Weise in

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