First Bush Veto Maintains Limits on Stem Cell Use

President Bush issued the first veto of his administration July 19, rejecting a bill that would have removed some restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The proposed legislation would have allowed funding of research conducted on surplus embryos generated by in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures.

These surplus embryos — of which there are about 400,000 in the United States — are typically discarded as medical waste. Despite the fact that the Bush administration knowingly allows these surplus IVF embryos to be disposed of as rubbish, Bush defended his veto by characterizing the embryos as human beings, entitled to the same rights as other human beings.

In a rush vote that same day, the House of Representatives failed to override the President’s veto. The Bush ban on funding likely will remain in effect at least through the end of the year. However, similar legislation is likely to be introduced in the next Congress, especially if the composition of Congress changes substantially after the mid-term elections.

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) vigorously opposes Bush administration policy on this issue, which is as ill-advised as it is harmful. Embryonic stem cell research holds the promise of developing therapies that would help millions of Americans who suffer from debilitating illnesses, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, diabetes, heart disease, and spinal cord injury.

The lack of federal funding has significantly impeded the progress of this research. The arguments against federal funding of embryonic stem cell research are fundamentally flawed, both scientifically and morally, as the vast majority of Americans recognize.

Early in its development (when it exists as a blastocyst), the embryo is not an organized, determinate individual, as demonstrated by the fact that it can spontaneously separate into multiple parts (a phenomenon referred to as “twinning.”) An embryo that lacks the capacities and properties of human persons and also has no prospect of developing these capacities and properties — because it will not be implanted in a uterus — does not have the moral status of a human person. The Bush veto guarantees that existing blastocysts will simply be wasted, and immeasurable potential good resulting from the scientific research in which they could be used will be delayed or lost needlessly. The Bush policy on stem cell research demonstrates once again that slipshod science and misguided ethics combine to make bad policy.

CFI’s Washington, D. C. Office of Public Policy has prepared a white paper on embryonic stem cell research, analyzing in more detail the arguments for and against embryonic stem cell research:

STEM CELL RESEARCH: An Approach to Bioethics Based on Scientific Naturalism