House defies Bush with move to increase stem cell funding

House defies Bush with move to increase stem cell funding
By Alex Barker in Washington
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: June 8 2007 03:00 | Last updated: June 8 2007 03:00


Legislation to increase federal funding for embryonic stem cell research was approved by the US Houseof Representatives yesterday but the measure looked doomed to fail after President George W. Bushpromised to use his veto power.

The largely symbolic act of defiance by the Democratic-led House is designed to increase political pressure on the president, who last year rejected a similar bill on the grounds that the techniques used are immoral and destroy human life.

Polls show that the majority of Americans support expanding the research.

The vote in the House, which approved a bill already passed by the Senate, won bipartisan support but fell short of thetwo-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.

In a written statement made from the G8 summit in Germany, Mr Bush said it would be a "grave mistake" to fund such research.

"If this bill were to become law, American taxpayers would for the first time in our history be compelled to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos," he said. "For that reason, I will veto the bill passed today."

Democrats made easing restrictions on stem cell research a central plank of their congressional election platform in 2006.

The legislation would provide government funding for researchers to use human embryos created for fertility treatment that would otherwise be discarded.

"Science is a gift of God to all of us and science has to take us to a place that is biblical in its power to cure," said Nancy Pelosi, Democratic speaker of the House. "And that is the embryonic stem cell research."

Mr Bush banned federal funding for stem cell research in 2001 and rejected bipartisan legislation passed by the Republican-led Congress last year.

The Republican party base is generally opposed to embryonic stem cell research. However, a significant minority believe that government funding should be provided.

Prominent members of the party - such as Nancy Reagan, former first lady, and John McCain, senator and presidential candidate - openly oppose Mr Bush over federal funding.

Democrats hope to build a coalition big enough to override the presidential veto.

The ban on funding has raised fears in the scientific community that the US will fall behind in stem cell research. By contrast, opponents of the measure argue that many scientific advances are making work on embryos unnecessary.

A number of congressmen cited research published on Wednesday, for instance, showing that embryonic cells can be made by reprogramming some of the genes in adult skin cells from mice, without having to create an embryo.