Laura Bush

Washington, May 20 (Reuters): President George W. Bush said today he would veto legislation that would loosen restrictions on embryonic stem cell research and expressed concern about human cloning research in South Korea.

In the House of Representatives, supporters of embryonic research sponsored by Republican Representative Mike Castle of Delaware and Democratic Representative Diane DeGette of Colorado hope for a vote next week and believe it will be close. Bush said the bill would violate his principles.

“I’ve made it very clear to the Congress that the use of federal money, taxpayers’ money, to promote science which destroys life in order to save life ? I’m against that. And, therefore, if the bill does that, I will veto it,” Bush said during a picture-taking session with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Bush imposed restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research in 2001. Supporters of loosening the restrictions believe broader research could help develop treatments for diseases like Alzheimer’s.

A South Korean scientist said today a groundbreaking study on stem cell research was funded with less than $200,000 a year in largely government grants.

Woo Suk Hwang and colleagues at Seoul National University took skin samples from patients with spinal cord injuries, juvenile diabetes and a rare immune disorder, fused the nuclei containing genetic material into hollowed-out egg cells, and grew batches of embryonic stem cells that are genetically almost identical to the patients.

Hwang and other scientists said their method did not actually create a human embryo and thus might not be objectionable to opponents of embryo research.

Opponents say even the days-old ball of cells used as a source of embryonic stem cells is a human life and thus should be protected.

“I’m very concerned about cloning,” Bush said. “I worry about a world in which cloning would be acceptable.”

Castle’s legislation would expand the number of stem cell lines that are eligible for federally funded research. White House spokesman Trent Duffy said that Bush was not opposed to all stem cell research.

“First of all the President is committed to human embryonic stem cell research. There’s a misperception that he is opposed to such research. He is not,” Duffy said.

But the President holds to “a principle that human life should not be created for the sole purpose of destroying it, and especially taxpayer dollars, public money, should not go for that type of practice that many, many, many Americans find morally offensive,” Duffy said.