It has been Bush's only veto. Surrounded on stage by so-called 'snowflake babies' -- i.e., children produced from embryos implanted in the wombs of unrelated women -- the president said, "These boys and girls are not spare parts. They remind us of what 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." But, of course, the very process of in vitro fertilization produces more embryos than are used. As many as 90% of all embryos are destroyed. In 2003 there were 400,000 frozen embryos and 31 'snowflake babies.' How on earth does the 0.0007% of embryos that are adopted mean that the stem cells in the 99.9993% of discarded embryos must be untouchable? You can destroy them by simply throwing them away or you can use the stem cells. Bush opted for destroying them by throwing them away. His veto didn't 'save' a single embryo.
Not a one. It makes no sense.
Now, reintroducing stem cell research funding is part of the Democrats' first 100 hours plan. And Bush again seems to plan to veto it.
Reuters:
The White House issued a report suggesting that another veto was inevitable.
"The stem cell debate is only the first in what will be an onrushing train of biotechnology challenges in our future. We must establish a constructive precedent here for taking the moral dimensions of these issues seriously," read the report, entitled Advancing Stem Cell Science without Destroying Human Life.
Senate dems say they have at least 67 votes to override a veto, but the house remains unclear...
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