The President's First Veto

Yesterday, President Bush issued the first veto of his presidency, striking down a bill from Congress to allow increased federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The President stuck to his guns, so to speak, upholding a decision he first made back in 2001 to limit federal embryonic stem cell research to the embryos that had already been destroyed prior to his presidency.

"In 2001," he said in a speech in the East Room of the White House, "I spoke to the American people and set forth a new policy on stem cell research that struck a balance between the needs of science and the demands of conscience. When I took office, there was no federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. Under the policy I announced five years ago, my administration became the first to make federal funds available for this research, yet only on embryonic stem cell lines derived from embryos that had already been destroyed." Since that policy was enacted, the government has given over $90 million dollars to the research.

The President gave a stirring and passionate speech yesterday in defense of his veto. "These boys and girls are not spare parts," he said, as the room exploded into applause. Invited to the speech were a number of Americans who have had medical treatments with adult or umbilical stem cell research, proving that there are other ways to get stem cells aside from the embryos of the unborn. "They remind us of that is lost when embryos are destroyed in the name of research. They remind us that we all begin our lives as a small collection of cells. And they remind us that in our zeal for new treatments and cures, America must never abandon our fundamental morals."