Pre dead-guy angst;

WASHINGTON -- Congress embarks this week on the weightiest of debates on morality and the march of science, deciding whether to use public money for embryonic stem cell research and, in turn, setting up President Bush's first veto.

Neither the House nor Senate has demonstrated enough support for the bill to override a veto, though the House probably will try, just to give Bush a definitive victory in the showdown.

Supporters of the research hold out faint hope that Bush, presented with new data and pressured by election-year politics, might reverse course and sign the bill.

"This would be his first veto in six years, on something that the vast majority of the public supports," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

"What would come down on him would be all the scientists, all the Nobel laureates and everyone else who supports it."

Polls show that 70 percent of the public supports the bill, which would expand federal aid for embryonic stem cell research.

The process is believed by many scientists to hold the most promise for curing diseases such as juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's that strike millions of people.

As I Have ALS, a disease that Stem cells has a high probability of curing, the entire idea of a thoecratic ban PISSES ME OFF!

If the opponents of curing people like me only knew the horrors of having your body gradually quit responding to your will, the pain and fear of falling and being helpless to cushin your fall and the awful realisation that you are going to die slowly, stripped of your dignity and humanity and finally that you will be an awful burden on your family.