“President Bush’s veto of legislation that would have funded stem cell research was regrettable and disappointing.
“In this era, scientific inquiry is so complex and costly that it requires a partnership between government and the scholars at our nation’s universities. Over decades, this relationship has proven extraordinarily successful, making our universities the envy of the world and bringing about tremendous advances in human knowledge, medicine, competitiveness, and prosperity for all Americans.
“In an age of breathtaking progress in biology and genetics, research into stem cell biology appears to hold enormous potential to provide important new biomedical understanding and even to cure some of the cruelest diseases and conditions that afflict us. The pursuit of this knowledge should not be politicized.
“This veto does not demonstrate leadership; it, instead, cedes leadership to other nations and other entities willing to put aside politics in order to pursue this potentially powerful area of scholarship.”