House passes wider stem-cell funding

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The Democrat-led Congress passed legislation yesterday to permit the expansion of federally funded research of human embryonic stem cells, but it's unlikely to survive President Bush's promised veto.

The House voted 247-176, with 37 Republicans joining 210 Democrats in approving the bill, about 35 votes shy of a two-thirds majority needed to override Mr. Bush. The president vetoed essentially the same measure last year.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, said Mr. Bush should sign the legislation that has cleared both chambers and provides the potential to "save lives, find cures and give hope to those suffering."

The legislation would allow federal funding of research on new lines of leftover embryos from in vitro fertilization clinics, which prompted Mr. Bush's first-ever veto last year.

President Bush said yesterday that he also will veto this year's version of the bill.

"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 in Germany, where he was attending a summit of world leaders. "Crossing that line would be a grave mistake."

Critics of the measure say human embryos should not be destroyed for medical research and that more promising research involving adult stem cells and blood taken from babies' umbilical cords should be where government puts its focus.

They add that the proposed legislation would divert funding away from current stem-cell research programs.

"The question here is not whether you support stem-cell research; the question is whether taxpayers should be forced to fund ethically questionable research," said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.

Mr. Bush's 2001 stem-cell policy allows federal funding to go to a limited number of embryonic stem-cell lines that existed at that time. It does not bar private research on embryos that are discarded by clinics.