WASHINGTON, 19 July 2006 - The U.S. Senate was set yesterday to defy President George W. Bush's veto threat by passing legislation which drastically increases government funding for embryonic stem cell research.
Bush has threatened to use his presidential right to cancel legislation for the first time in his five and a half years in office.
The Senate has been debating three separate bills on stem cell research, which supporters say offers major possibilities for medical breakthroughs.
The main bill, the controversial Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, would lift rules set by Bush in 2001 that make federal funds available only to research on a small number of existing embryonic stem cell lines.
While the legislation was expected to pass and polls indicate the public overwhelmingly supports research, neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives was expected to muster the two-thirds majority needed to overcome a presidential veto.
Government money was barred from supporting work on new lines derived from human embryos - a restriction that opponents say hampers research.
On the eve of yesterday's vote, however, the White House renewed its veto threat.
The proposed bill would compel "all American taxpayers to pay for research that relies on the intentional destruction of human embryos for the derivation of stem cells," it said.
"Destroying nascent human life for research raises serious ethical problems, and many millions of Americans consider the practice immoral."
Senator John Kerry, the Democratic contender in the last presidential election, criticised Bush's veto threat.
"President Bush has signed 1,163 bills into law without vetoing a single one of them. A veto now would send a message to all Americans that, on crucial issues, our differences are greater than our shared convictions.
"It would tell the world that America no longer wants to be the country that pushes the envelope of scientific knowledge and discovery.
"Congress has taken the politics out of stem cell research. It's time the White House does, too," said Kerry.
Rival interest groups have been busy in recent days lobbying lawmakers to support or oppose the extra funds. Many have used Kerry's message that the United States risks losing its leading research role.
The Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research emphasised that stem cell research could provide the key to cures for many life-threatening illnesses, ranging from Parkinson's disease to juvenile diabetes.
"If this bill does not pass, we not only risk the lives and well-being of millions of Americans and their families, we also risk losing America's leadership position in the fields of science and medicine," the coalition said in a statement.
But conservative Republicans such as Senator Sam Brownback have urged Bush to stand firm in his opposition.
Many scientists say they need the legislation to access a fresh supply of stem cells from donated frozen embryos left over after fertility treatments.
They point out that embryonic stem cells can form all of the different tissue types found in the human body - perhaps allowing for the replacement some day of damaged or diseased organs.
But Bush, from the very start of his presidency, has firmly stated his opposition to stem cell research on moral grounds.
"Research on embryonic stem cells raises profound ethical questions, because extracting the stem cell destroys the embryo and thus destroys its potential for life," he said in a nationally televised speech in August 2001.
One of the best-known public figures in favour of increased stem cell use is Nancy Reagan, widow of Republican president Ronald Reagan, who died after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.
