WASHINGTON, May 24, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – US President Bush, a long-time opponent of the use of living human embryos in stem cell research, has vowed to veto a proposed bill that would increase federal funding for embryo-killing experimentation. The U.S. House of Representatives will vote today on H.R. 810, the “Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act,” a bill that would see federal funding for using embryos stored in IVF labs. The bill would overturn Bush’s 2001 restriction of federal funding to cultured stem cell lines already in existence at the time.
Bush has never yet exercised his veto power, but he says he will do it if the House passes the bill. He said he strongly opposes “the use of federal money – taxpayers’ money—to promote science which destroys life in order to save life.”
“We cannot cross a fundamental moral line,” said Deputy White House Press Secretary Trent Duffy, “about using public money to support the destruction of human life.”
A media release from the National Right to Life Committee calls H.R.810 a “stepping stone to human cloning.”“Most of the organizations most actively involved in promoting H.R. 810, such as the Biotechnology Industry Organization and the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, and most of their congressional allies, are also strong supporters of so-called ‘therapeutic cloning,’” the NRLC release said.
Though the bill does not directly mention allowing the creation of embryos by cloning, it does not exclude them. Cloning technology is moving forward and IVF clinics are likely to offer it as soon as its success rate has improved. The bill only specifies embryos from IVF labs, and not the method by which they were created.
Researchers, eager to get hold of the embryos frozen in storage in commercial IVF labs around the country, have been lobbying hard since 2001 using a co-conspiring media already committed to abortion and the consequent cheapening of human life. Major media outlets such as Reuters and the New York Times, have consistently favoured embryo research and are skewing public opinion with deceptive euphemisms in a manner only too familiar to pro-life advocates.
This effort has been balanced however, by the large number of successful experimental treatments using adult and umbilical cord stem cells. An International Communications Research poll earlier this month found 52 to 36 of those polled opposed embryonic stem cell research. A Winston Group poll of Republicans found that 73% were less favorable to embryo research if it was made clear to them that it ends the embryo’s life. Even those who were pro-choice after hearing this message were 64% less favorable.
See transcript of President Bush’s remarks this afternoon after meeting with 21 families that adopted children as embryos.