Embryonic stem-cell bill called 'eminently worthy' of Bush's first veto

Published: 2006-07-19

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Surrounded by children who were once frozen embryos and the families who adopted them, President George W. Bush announced July 19 that he had used the first veto of his five-and-a-half-year administration on a bill that would have expanded federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. "As science brings us ever closer to unlocking the secrets of human biology, it also offers temptations to manipulate human life and violate human dignity," Bush said. "Our conscience and history as a nation demand that we resist this temptation." If the Stem-Cell Research Enhancement Act had become law, "for the first time in our history we would have been forced to fund the deliberate destruction of human embryos, and I'm not going to allow it." Among the Catholic leaders praising the veto was Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson of the Knights of Columbus, who said the stem-cell bill was "eminently worthy of President Bush's first veto."

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