US: Defying President Bush's threat to impose his first veto, a broad swathe of US House of Representative Republicans voted with an overwhelming number of Democrats on Tuesday evening to repeal his restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and to plunge the government deeper into the controversial science that supporters say could lead to cures for debilitating diseases.
The 238 to 194 vote, unusual because 50 Republicans broke with Bush and top House leaders, followed a highly personalised, occasionally tearful debate in which a parade of lawmakers recounted medical tragedies that had afflicted their families, while opponents contended that the science is built on destroying human lives.
The legislation, which has strong support in the Senate, would make federal money available for research on embryonic stem cells extracted from frozen embryos donated by couples who no longer need them for fertility treatments. It would lift a restriction imposed by Mr Bush nearly four years ago that limits federally-funded research to fewer than two dozen embryonic stem cell colonies, or lines.
The president and other opponents focused on the fact that the embryos are destroyed in obtaining the cells.
House majority leader Tom DeLay, (Republican, Texas) called it a "vote to fund with taxpayer dollars the dismemberment of living, distinct human beings for the purposes of medical experimentation."
The vote carried an echo of Monday's Senate deal that averted a showdown over Bush's judicial appointments, with moderate lawmakers working across the aisle to triumph over their leaders.
Mr Bush said last week that he would veto the bill. With the debate underway at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, he underscored his opposition by holding an East Room ceremony surrounded by children whose families had adopted them as embryos. The same families had appeared several hours earlier on Capitol Hill, with parents and children alike sporting stickers that said, "Former Embryo".
"This bill would take us across a critical ethical line by creating new incentives for the ongoing destruction of emerging human life," Bush said.
Polls have shown, however, that the public is strongly supportive of the research, and Nancy Reagan's backing made the issue politically palatable for many conservatives.
House energy and commerce committee chairman Joe Barton (Republican, Texas) who was among the one-third of Republican committee chairmen who supported the bill, said the loss of his father to diabetes at the age of 71 and a brother to liver disease at the age of 44 had shaped his decision to support expanded research.
And Lane Evans (Democrat, Illinois) described his own struggle with Parkinson's, saying the disease that is destroying his nerve cells "doesn't keep me from doing the things that are important to me" but does affect every day of his life. "Only embryonic stem cells hold enormous potential to turn into any cell in the body" and potentially offer him a cure, he said.
But Daniel Lungren (Republican, California) said that his older brother John's 15-year battle with Parkinson's did not obviate his ethical concerns and that he could not support "the destruction of part of the human family".
In the Senate, a matching bill has the crucial support of Senators Orrin Hatch (Republican , Utah) and judiciary committee chairman Arlen Specter (Republican, Pennsylvania) who have said they plan to capitalise on the momentum from the House.
One leading conservative has said he intends to filibuster to try to prevent a vote.
Republican leaders said they do not believe that the Bill's supporters can achieve the 290 votes needed to override a Bush veto in the House.
Several of the Republicans voting "yes" acknowledged they were breaking voting records they described as "pro-life", and said they were doing so because of their interest in pursuing potential cures for juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's, spinal cord injuries and other ailments.
Unlike the partisan battles that typically occupy the House, the day-long debate was intensely personal, infused with Biblical references, accounts of family medical tragedies and sharp disagreement over when life begins.
Proponents of the bill argued that Bush's 2001 limits on federal funding have hampered potentially promising treatments for a range of illnesses and put the US at a competitive disadvantage with nations that have pursued the research more aggressively.
Christopher Shays (Republican, Connecticut) called his support "one of the most important votes I will ever make in Congress."
"I think it's time we recognized the Dark Ages are over," Mr Shays said. "Galileo and Copernicus have been proven right. The world is in fact round; the Earth does revolve around the sun. I believe God gave us intellect to differentiate between imprisoning dogma and sound ethical science, which is what we must do here today."
Opposing the bill, house international relations committee chairman Henry Hyde (Republican, Illionis) drew scattered applause when he compared the legislation to the failure of a former generation to recognize the humanity of Dred Scott, the slave whose suit for his freedom led to a landmark US Supreme Court ruling.
"We're going to pay a terrible price for not recognizing the humanity of these little embryos," he warned.