President George Bush has said he will veto legislation that would allow Federal funding of new stem cell research. Proponents of this research want to use embryos that have already been created by couples seeking to have children through in vitro fertilization. Bush argues that we should not create human life and then destroy it to save human life. His argument is understandable except that to prevent the use of embryos that already exist and will be destroyed anyway makes no sense. The legislation could be written to limit Federally funded stem cell research using embryos that are to be destroyed from the in vitro fertilization process so long as the donors agree to their use. For the president to prevent Federally funded research using existing embryos will prevent possible medical breakthroughs that could relieve the suffering of millions of people.
The president's inflexible position on stem cell research using existing embryos is another example of how he and the religious right are attempting to push their religious convictions on everyone and prevent medical science from relieving the suffering in this world. To prevent the use of human embryos that will be destroyed anyway is not logical and is counterproductive!