President Bush yesterday vetoed legislation to expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research, saying that scientific advances now allow researchers to pursue the potentially lifesaving work without destroying human embryos. Bush followed his veto — his third since becoming president — with an executive order aimed at encouraging federal agencies to support research that offers the promise of creating medically useful stem cells without destroying human embryos. In his veto message to Congress, Bush said the legislation crossed an ethical line. ‘The Congress has sent me legislation that would compel American taxpayers, for the first time in our history, to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos,’ Bush said. The veto came under attack from those who say the president is withholding critical support for the most promising forms of stem cell research to appease conservative Christians and other supporters who equate human embryos with human lives. ‘This is just one example of how the president puts ideology before science, politics before the needs of our families — just one more example of how out of touch with reality he and his party have become,’ Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said during a speech to Democratic […]