President Bush announced his veto today of S.5, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, passed by Congress this month. The legislation would have forced taxpayers to pay for research using stem cells taken from destroyed human embryos.
During the ceremony in the East Room of the White House, he also issued an executive order directing the Department of Health and Human Services to promote research that does not destroy life.
Bush said his duty as president is to ensure that stem-cell research is ethically responsible, such as using adult stem cells.
"This careful approach is producing results," he said. "It has contributed to proven therapeutic treatments in thousands of patients with many different diseases. It's opening the prospect of new discoveries that could transform lives."
He said his executive order will make it more likely that such advances continue and will support his policy of advancing stem-cell research "in a way that is ambitious, ethical and effective."
"Congress has sent me a bill that would overturn this policy," Bush said. "If this legislation became law, it would compel American taxpayers – for the first time in our history – to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos.
"I made it clear to Congress and to the American people that I will not allow our nation to cross this moral line. Last year, Congress passed a similar bill. I kept my promise by vetoing it. And today, I'm keeping my word again: I am vetoing the bill that Congress has sent."
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