President Bush Vetoes Stem Cell Research Bill

President Bush vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have allowed the government to expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The veto comes just a day after the Senate had passed the bill 63-37, four votes short of the 2/3 majority that would have been needed to override the president’s veto.

In blocking the bill, the president said that his reason for vetoing it was that it "crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect." He added that the measure would "support the taking of innocent human life in hopes of finding medical benefits for others." The bill would have funded research on donated embryos from abortions and other sources that would otherwise be destroyed. Polls prior to the vote showed that as many as 70% of the American public support embryonic stem cell research.

The veto came as no surprise to many people, because Bush had voice opposition to it from the beginning. Late appeals supporting the bill were issued from fellow Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nancy Reagan, but Bush said that the bill would have done away with the more balance approach he had voiced all along on the issue. The issue is a personal one for the widow of Ronald Reagan, who had Alzheimer’s disease, as well as for the California governor, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease.

Even though other high-profile conservatives including John McCain and Bill Frist had voted to approve the bill, White House Spokesman Tony Snow said that it’s a matter of principle for the president. Snow described Bush’s feelings by saying that he did not want to go down the "slippery slope" of destroying a living thing in the name of research.

Angry Democrats have vowed to do all they can to get the bill back on the floor of the legislature and get it approved. New York Senator Charles Schumer said that the veto was an unfortunate choice by Bush, because it will "rob so many people of hope." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid referred to Bush as "the president who wouldn’t veto billion-dollar handouts for Enron and Exxon" but is willing to trample on the wishes of people such as former president Reagan and actor Michael J. Fox. Democrats plan to apply pressure to Republicans to override the veto, but they do not expect to get the votes they need.

The veto by Bush was his first in the 5 ½ years since he took office. No president has waited that long to cast a veto since John Quincy Adams. But the White House said that the president has not had to use his veto power before now because Congress has always agreed with him on most issues.