U.S. House Votes to Fund Embryo-Killing Research, 238-194; President Bush Vows Veto If Senate Also Approves.

WASHINGTON (June 6, 2005)-Despite objections from NRLC and other pro-life groups, on May 24 the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill (H.R. 810) to provide federal funds for stem cell research that would require killing human embryos.

But if this bill emerges from the U.S. Senate-where it will face stiff resistance from some key senators-President Bush has vowed he will veto it.

The House passed the bill by a margin of 238 to 194, which was 50 votes short of the two-thirds majority that would be required to override a veto.

The President issued his veto warning days before the House took up the bill. As the House debated the measure he spoke at the White House to families that included children who had been adopted while they were still embryos, stored in the freezers of in vitro fertilization labs.

"The children here today remind us that there is no such thing as a spare embryo," the President told the group. "Every embryo is unique and genetically complete, like every otherhuman being. And each of us started out our life this way. These lives are not raw material to be exploited, but gifts."

(To read the President's complete remarks, see page 8.)

During the House floor debate, backers of the bill insisted that stem cells taken from human embryos were absolutely necessary to advance research that they said could lead to cures for a host of diseases. Many opponents argued that research using stem cells taken from other sources, such as adult tissues and umbilical cords, had already produced far more promising therapeutic results.