Bush vetoed the legislation quietly. White House spokesman Tony Snow gives the reason for the veto:
"The simple answer is he thinks murder's wrong. The president is not going to get on the slippery slope of taking something living and making it dead for the purposes of scientific research."
Something living? What is he referring to? What is he calling "life"? The little spots or dots in a petri dish? Some people who are against this research claim that these embryos, or dots in a petri dish, feel pain. How on earth do they know? These dots have no senses, since they have no eyes, ears, noses, or skins for touch. They have no nerves to experience any such thing as pain. They have no brains. They are not human beings. They may become human beings eventually, but now they are dots in a petri dish.
For the sake of argument, let's assume that these dots in a petri dish are "life." How would you compare dots-in-a-petri-dish "life" with the life of a 55-year old man who is beginning to feel the ravages of Alzheimer's? Compare the two from all viewpoints. The dots-in-a-petri-dish "life" may become human in the future or it may not; more of them do not make it than do. This 55-year old is here, a breathing person who is trying to enjoy life, but is thwarted by this horrible disease. The dots in a petri dish have no senses, nerves and brains. The 55-year old man has all these and they provide him with lots of suffering; he faces a slow, miserable death.
Who deserves our compassion more? The dots in a petri dish? Or the 55-year old man struck with Alzheimer's?
Bush calls using dots in a petri dish killing "life." What does he call the prohibition of research for alleviation of miserable diseases such as Alzheimer's? Of course, no one knows what can and cannot be achieved by embryonic stem cell research. But it is a blow against the "culture of life" to stop or slow down the research.
By vetoing this legislation, Bush has vetoed his "culture of life."
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