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Catholic World News News Feature

US Senate backs embryo research July 19, 2006

The US Senate has voted to expand federal funding for stem-cell research using embryonic tissue. But President George. W. Bush promptly vetoed the legislation.

After a lively debate on July 18, the Senate voted 63- 37 in favor of a proposal to increase taxpayer support for stem-cell research using "leftover" embryos from fertility clinics. Support for the bill fell just short of the two-thirds majority that would be required to override a presidential veto.

President Bush exercised his authority immediately, announcing on the day after the vote that he had vetoed the bill. "It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect," he announced. "So I vetoed it." It was the first use of the presidential veto power by President Bush since he entered the White House in January 2001.

Presidential spokesman Tony Snow had told reporters, immediately after the Senate vote, that Bush would carry out his promise to veto the legislation. "The president is not going to get on the slippery slope of taking something living and making it dead for the purposes of scientific research," Snow told a television audience.

Both supporters and opponents of the stem-cell research funding saw the Wednesday vote as a major test. Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, a Democrat, said that the American public would not understand why the federal government "has shut down medical research that promises hope." Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, a Republican (and, like Durbin, a Catholic) replied: "It is immoral to destroy the youngest of human lives for research purposes."

Support for the embryonic stem-cell research cut across party lines. Two Republicans who are considering a run for the presidency in 2008-- John McCain of Arizona and Bill Frist of Tennessee-- voted for the expanded research funding.