Bush would veto House bill on stem cells
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President Bush said on Friday he would veto legislation that would loosen restrictions on embryonic stem cell research and expressed concern about human cloning research in South Korea.
In the House of Representatives, supporters of embryonic research sponsored by Republican Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware and Democratic Rep. Diane DeGette of Colorado hope for a vote next week and believe it will be close.
Bush said the bill would violate his principles.
“I’ve 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—I’m against that. And therefore if the bill does that, I will veto it,” Bush told reporters during a picture-taking session with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Bush imposed restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research in 2001. Supporters of loosening the restrictions believe broader research could help develop treatments for diseases like Alzheimer’s.
A South Korean scientist said on Friday a groundbreaking study on stem cell research was funded with less than $200,000 a year in largely government grants. Woo Suk Hwang of Seoul National University said they had successfully created batches of embryonic stem cells from patients.
“I’m very concerned about cloning,” Bush said. “I worry about a world in which cloning would be acceptable.”
Castle’s legislation would expand the number of stem cell lines that are eligible for federally funded research.
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said that Bush was not opposed to all stem cell research.
“First of all the president is committed to human embryonic stem cell research. There’s a misperception that he is opposed to such research. He is not,” Duffy said.
But the president holds to “a principle that human life should not be created for the sole purpose of destroying it, and especially taxpayer dollars, public money, should not go for that type of practice that many, many, many Americans find morally offensive,” Duffy said.
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