pecla
08-09-2001, 06:43 AM
August 9, 2001 Posted: 1148 GMT
WACO, Texas (AP ) -- After months of deliberations, President Bush will announce his decision Thursday night on whether to allow federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, a White House spokesman said.
Bush intends to disclose his decision in a nationally televised address at 9 p.m. EDT, administration spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
"The president wants to share the decision with the American people himself so they can see and hear why he came to the decision he came to," Fleischer said. "He wants to share this directly with the American people."
The setting for the address will be a house on Bush's ranch, where he is spending most of a monthlong working vacation.
Bush has wrestled for months with whether to allow the funding. summoning a list of experts on the scientific, ethical and religious implications of the research.
He has insisted that political considerations were not part of his deliberations. But his decision is sure to please and disappoint crucial blocs of the electorate. For instance, Roman Catholic leaders, including Pope John Paul II, have strongly urged him to bar the funding.
On the other hand, such conservative Republicans as Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina have called for federal funding of such research because of the potential payoff in treatment of a number of diseases.
WACO, Texas (AP ) -- After months of deliberations, President Bush will announce his decision Thursday night on whether to allow federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, a White House spokesman said.
Bush intends to disclose his decision in a nationally televised address at 9 p.m. EDT, administration spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
"The president wants to share the decision with the American people himself so they can see and hear why he came to the decision he came to," Fleischer said. "He wants to share this directly with the American people."
The setting for the address will be a house on Bush's ranch, where he is spending most of a monthlong working vacation.
Bush has wrestled for months with whether to allow the funding. summoning a list of experts on the scientific, ethical and religious implications of the research.
He has insisted that political considerations were not part of his deliberations. But his decision is sure to please and disappoint crucial blocs of the electorate. For instance, Roman Catholic leaders, including Pope John Paul II, have strongly urged him to bar the funding.
On the other hand, such conservative Republicans as Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina have called for federal funding of such research because of the potential payoff in treatment of a number of diseases.