WASHINGTON – President Bush vowed Friday to veto legislation intended to ease the restrictions he imposed on stem cell research in 2001, setting up a potentially divisive battle with Congress over the morality of modern science.
A bipartisan team in the House has collected 201 sponsors and believes it has enough other supporters to reach the 218 votes necessary to pass the measure as early as next week and send it to the Senate. But Bush, who has yet to veto a bill in more than four years in office, dashed their hopes that he would allow it to become law without a fight.
“I made my position very clear on embryonic stem cells,” Bush told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with the visiting prime minister of Denmark. “I’m a strong supporter of adult stem cell research, of course. But I made it very clear to the Congress that the use of federal money, taxpayers’ money, to promote science which destroys life in order to save life is – I’m against that. And therefore, if the bill does that, I will veto it.”
The president also expressed alarm at reports that scientists in South Korea have created nearly a dozen cloned human embryos genetically identical to medical patients in hopes of replacing defective tissue. “I’m very concerned about cloning,” Bush said. “I worry about a world in which cloning becomes acceptable.”
Bush first informed several members of Congress during a private White House meeting on Wednesday that he would reject the stem cell legislation, according to an official knowledgeable about the session. By making his position publicly known Friday, the president could influence Republicans who are unenthusiastic about angering anti-abortion groups over a vote that might not change federal policy.
If so, that could avert the need for Bush to issue his first veto on such a volatile issue, given that the sponsors of the measure doubt they have enough votes to override him.
The House legislation, sponsored by Reps. Michael Castle, R-Del., and Diana DeGette, D-Colo., would still prohibit federal funding for the creation of embryos solely for research purposes. But it would allow research using embryos stored at fertility clinics and donated by couples who no longer need them.
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