WASHINGTON, DC (AgapePress) - A leading conservative voice in Washington is decrying the U.S. House of Representatives' passage of legislation mandating the use of tax dollars for research that destroys human embryos.

By a 253-174 vote, the House passed H.R. 3, a bill that would expand federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, or ESCR. President George W. Bush has vowed to veto the legislation, saying it "would use federal taxpayer dollars to support and encourage the destruction of human life for research."

The vote on the legislation fell 32 votes short of the two-thirds margin required to overturn the President's promised veto. H.R. 3 is the same as a bill that Bush vetoed July 19 of last year; a veto override attempt at that time failed by 51 votes.

Gary Bauer

American Values president and former U.S. presidential candidate Gary Bauer calls the House vote a sad one, particularly in light of an announced breakthrough from several research hospitals indicating that an abundance of stem cells can be recovered from amniotic fluid without harm to the mother or child. "To me," the conservative activist says, "it shows that this vote is all about politics more than it is about science."

On the positive side, Bauer notes, "while unfortunately this legislation passed, it did not pass with a veto-proof margin, so we will be counting on the president to veto this bill."

President Bush has been "outstanding" on the issue of life in general and specifically on the issue of embryonic stem-cell research, the American Values spokesman points out. He says Bush understands that Americans with deep moral objections to killing human embryos do not want their tax dollars paying for research that does exactly that.

"That's what this vote is about," Bauer asserts. "In spite of the demagoguery, embryonic stem-cell research is not illegal in the United States," he explains; "so all these votes in Congress are about is whether the average American taxpayer will be forced to pay for embryonic stem-cell research, which millions of Americans believe is the taking of an innocent human life."

Bauer is expecting the vote in the U.S. Senate on the ESCR bill to be lopsided as well. However, he says he would not be surprised if the Senate vote resulted in a veto-proof margin there, just as the House vote did.

Pro-life organizations are disappointed with the outcome of the House vote, but are praising those lawmakers who opposed H.R. 3. National Right to Life Committee legislative director Douglas Johnson says every lawmaker who voted against the legislation supports stem-cell research, just "not the kind that requires killing human embryos, and we commend them for that."

Johnson has highlighted the fact that the key lawmakers pushing H.R. 3 rejected an anti-human-cloning amendment. He calls this "one more proof that the biotech industry is determined to use human cloning to create human embryo farms."

A bill that is identical to H.R. 3 has been introduced into the Senate as S.5. Senate action on the issue is expected within a matter of months.

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