Stem cell law attempts veto by-pass

The US Senate has passed two bills relating to stem cell research, with the most contentious, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 (S5), being carried by 63 votes to 34 with three Senators not voting. This is four votes short of the two-thirds majority that would have been required to prevent President George W Bush from using his power of veto, which he has only used once before, against another human embryonic stem cell law (Marketletters passim). In a statement before the vote, the President announced his intention of repeating his previous veto.

A number of groups welcomed the passage of the mostly Democrat-sponsored legislation, including patient groups for diabetes and Parkinson's disease. The Biotechnology Industry Organization commended the Senate for passing S5. The BIO's president, Jim Greenwood, said that, "although our nation's existing federal stem cell policy has advanced in this important field, it is clear that an expanded program is essential for this research to achieve its full potential."

The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act differs from a similar proposal which was carried in the House of Representatives in January, because it includes a Republican-inspired clause that would require the National Institutes of Health to research and fund methods of creating embryonic stem cell lines without destroying embryos.