Bush Blocks Stem Cell Funding That Would Destroy Embryos.(Brief Article)

Using his first televised speech to the nation to underscore the importance of the issue, President George W. Bush announced that he would not allow federal funding of stem cell research that would cause human embryos to be destroyed.

In a thoughtful, eloquent 11-minute speech broadcast from his Texas ranch, President Bush said he believes "human life is a sacred gift from our creator. I worry about a culture that devalues life, and believe as your president I have an important obligation to foster and encourage respect for life in America and throughout the world."

President Bush's decision nullified the guidelines approved by former President Clinton that would have provided taxpayer funding for embryonic stem cell research that allowed the continual destruction of human embryos. President Bush had not allowed the Clinton regulations to go into effect while he studied the issue.

Much of the media and many in and out of Congress have argued that the government should underwrite research which would require the destruction of so-called "spare" embryos created but not implanted at fertility clinics, a position Mr. Bush flatly rejected.

"We commend President Bush's decision to prevent the federal government from becoming involved in research and experimentation that would require the deliberate destruction of human embryos," said NRLC Executive Director David N. O'Steen, Ph.D. "In taking this position, the President has acted to save the lives that he could."

President Bush said he would strictly limit federal funding to research on existing stem cell lines, which had already been privately derived from embryonic stem cells. In this case, the President said, "The life and death decision has already been made."

While NRLC did not favor federal funding of research involving existing embryonic stem cell lines, neither President Bush nor his administration had anything to do with the destruction of those embryos nor the establishment of these cell lines.