He vetoed the bill because he didn't agree with it morally based on his personal beliefs.
As for me I'm split on this issue. I would love for people who have illnesses which have taken away part of their life to be able to walk again or do something they aren't able to do right now.
However what you all have to understand is that researchers are still YEARS AWAY were talking 20 years before the technology and research provides a drug or whatever that will help victims of certain illnesses. We may never see anything come from this research in our lifetimes, but maybe our kids.
My other problem with this whole thing is the whole basis of "playing God" It's not a wise thing to do and I also come from the belief and value system that things happen to people for a reason, and yes bad things happen to good people. I've always lived by the motto of "**** happens and when it does you need to do your best to wash the **** off and move on with life" don't sit there staring into the wind with the **** on you. I think life is a test and a big part of the test is to see how you as a human being can overcome the odds that are thrown at you. Some will buckle at the knees and fail, others will prevail.
So in closing I believe that some people are under the false delusion that if we gave 10000 billion dollars to this research that next month a drug will be produced and given to those who need it and all will be well with the world.
I don't think the federal government should be providing money to a controversial medical program like this, and simply stay out of it. If people want to do research in the private field then so be it. If people want to raise donations for the private funding then so be it, but I don't want my tax dollars going towards a program I don't believe deep down is morally or ethnically right.
The question to myself I always ask when I talk about or write about this issue is could I say that in front of someone suffereing from a illness or disease?
I love the U.S. but I don't think we are the best in the world at everything and we have ethical problems in our country.
Also if people want to support the private programs then why don't they start donating the embroyos to the private companies? In the end your going to make more money off of private donations then you are of the federal government.
This is one of those damn if we do or damed if we don't to me personally. I just don't think we should have that kind of power to decide things like this. We are opening Pandora's box by doing these types of things and we are now tooling with natural processes. Call me superstitutious or whatever I just don't think deep down that it's right.
I mean it's like the scenario where you are dirt poor and you have a family to feed but you can't and you have the option to rob a bank or kill someone for money. Do you do it? Or do you let your family starve?
*Sorry edited for a side note....
We don't know what stem cells will do yet because we haven't been able to study them. Biotech research is always on the brink of the next miracle drug. Monoclonals were going to change disease therapy as we know it. Then it was gene therapy, then it was radiotagged monoclonals, followed by small molecule therapy, and now it is stem cells.
There are some monoclonals (maybe about a half dozen) on the market, primarily in blood cancers and autoimmune diseases, gene therapy still hasn't lived up to the promise and it is doubtful it will for the forseeable future. Small molecules have shown efficacy in combination chemo, but none are the blockbuster that was envisioned.
So I am not willing to jump on the stem cell bandwagon as cure for everything from Parkinson't to athlete's foot until I see some data on the treatment in humans. And we don't have any. To date we have done stem cell therapy in mouse models and in vitro human cells. They show some promise.
But humans aren't mice, nor do we develop in isolation in a petri dish kept in optimal conditions. We are probably at least a half a decade away from human trials, and better than twice that before the therapies are approved. Sad, but true.