Bush's Veto Pen: Protecting Us From the Horror of Saving Lives

In 6 years, George W. Bush had used his veto pen twice. With all the bills that Congress spit onto his desk in 1 and ½ terms of office, the President found a whopping two that he didn't think were worthy of becoming public law. That is, until this week, when he vetoed his landmark third bill. One would have to figure, for a guy as sign-happy as Bush, anything he vetoes must be pretty bad - something so outrageous, it would defy logic or possibly lead us to ruin. The three bills he vetoed must have contained provisions that he had to protect us from at all costs.

So what horrific excuse for a law did the President strike down this time?

A law that would have allowed the federal government to fund research that could help cure diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Lou Gehrig's disease, and a plethora of others.

Phew. Thank God he saved us. We really dodged a bullet there.

Amazingly, this is the second time he has vetoed a bill pertaining to this same topic. That's right: two out of the three bills he has vetoed in his entire Presidency were for funding stem cell research. And he vetoed them in the face of support from both Congress, the majority of the public, and almost all of our scientific institutions. The President, apparently, knows better than me. Or you. Or Congress. Or our scientists.

Or, more accurately, he is morally superior to me, you, and Congress, and our scientists, because Bush's opposition to embryonic stem cell research has nothing to do with any practical problems with the research or the bill itself. It isn't due to lack of funding. We have plenty of money. It's not because the research wouldn't be viable or useful. It likely would be. It isn't because the bill is poorly written or vague. It is very specific about what it allows. His opposition is for one reason and one reason only: he thinks that destroying a bunch of cells in a dish is the equivalent to taking a human life.

For anyone who agrees with him, I have a spare tire that could someday become a BMW, and I'll sell it to you for half the price of one.

Never mind that the cells in question are leftovers from fertility treatments and are going to be discarded anyway. Never mind that the bill specifies that any embryos used for research have to be leftovers that are going to be destroyed. Never mind that real people, with arms legs, and brains, are suffering conditions that could be alleviated by this research. The only thing that matters here is that George Bush thinks those embryos are the full equivalent of thinking, breathing human beings. And for that, researchers throughout the country are denied funding that could treat illnesses and save lives.

The good news is that since the majority of the public supports stem cell research, Congress supports it, and our scientists support it, it is unlikely the ban on federal funding will last forever. We also still have plenty of private research, using private funds. The best that Bush can do is delay the inevitable. Still, while scientists in countries like Singapore and South Korea conduct their research with the full backing of their governments, we run the possibility of lagging behind, in an area on which the United States has usually been on the cutting edge. It's embarrassing, if nothing else.

But then, I guess when it comes to the President embarrassing us in front of the world, stem cells are the least of our worries.