Ohio governor criticized for vetoing ban on stem-cell funding

Published: 2005-07-06

CINCINNATI (CNS) -- Ohio Gov. Bob Taft has come under fire for vetoing a provision in the state's $51 billion budget that would have banned any state money from being used on embryonic stem-cell research. In a June 30 statement, Taft said the provision would have prevented funds from the state's 10-year technology-based economic growth program "from being used to support any research using embryonic stem cells." Bradley Mattes, executive director of the Life Issues Institute in Cincinnati, said Taft was "putting the economics of the state clearly ahead of human life." In his statement, Taft said, "Ohio's current policy, which mirrors President (George W.) Bush's restrictions on the use of embryonic stem cells in federally funded research, protects life by limiting publicly funded research to the use of only those embryonic stem-cell lines that existed at the time the president determined federal policy. This veto is in the public interest." But Mattes said that with the veto Taft "is leaving human life in its earliest stages highly vulnerable with absolutely no protections."

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