On June 20, President George W. Bush vetoed legislation to expand the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The bill, S. 5, would have broadened which embryonic stem cell lines researchers could use in federal funded experiments.
Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said, "President Bush has again boldly prevented American taxpayers from being compelled to fund the killing of human embryos. Advances in life-affirming forms of stem cell research continue to prove we do not need to kill the smallest, most vulnerable human beings in order to successfully treat those who are suffering."
According to the National Institutes of Health, the federal government has spent $122 million on research using human embryonic stem cells in the last four years and plans to spend an additional $74 million in the next two years. The University of Michigan received a federally funded grant to experiment on human embryonic stem cells in 2003. This research has not treated a single human patient.
"Right to Life of Michigan will continue to educate the public on the advances in adult stem cell research and research using stem cells found in umbilical cord blood and amniotic fluid through our StemCellResearchCures.com web site. Unfortunately, many people have been deceived into believing that embryonic stem cells offer their only hope of being cured," said Listing.
