Christian speaker and author Joni Eareckson Tada was among those gathered at the White House in support of President George W. Bush as he vetoed a bill that would have expanded federal funding of research using human embryos from in vitro fertilization clinics to harvest stem cells.

“I stand with countless Americans with disabilities who believe that our cause is not advanced when human life is sacrificed in hopes of finding a cure,” said Tada, a spinal-cord-injured quadriplegic for nearly four decades. “People like me who are medically fragile are left vulnerable and exposed in a society that views human life as a commodity which can be experimented upon or exploited. Any research that destroys human embryos is an affront to God's creative authority.

“I am grateful for the principled stand our President has taken-first and foremost because of the sanctity of human life, but also because restrictions on use of taxpayer dollars may well encourage funding in the overlooked and less commercially-viable field of adult stem-cell therapy,” Tada said after the White House ceremony July 19.

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