There are many questions raised by George Bush’s veto of the embryonic stem cell research bill, not least those about a legislative system that lets both Houses of Congress pass a bill only for it to be quashed by a collision of church and state. Aren’t there constitutional arguments against the veto?

Chris Dillow beats me to the question of the kind of morality that lets Bush rescue potential human beings while sitting by watching actual human beings being caught between the the hammer and the anvil in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Israel. It’s time to trot out the old George Carlin quote which I use all the time: ‘If you’re pre-born, you’re fine. If you’re pre-school, you’re fucked!’

Bush making his announcement in front of a backdrop of ‘snowflake children‘ was a nice touch. ‘Each of these children was adopted while still an embryo, and has been blessed with the chance to grow up in a loving family,’ he said. Lucky them.

Screw the memory of Christopher Reeve. Screw Michael J Fox and his unfortunate ilk - you can’t have your photo taken with them anway, the picture would be blurred. What happens though if some of these snowflake kids get Parkinsons? Or spinal injuries? Can they still have their picture taken with the President?

Apparently, 400,000 fertilized embryos are discarded every year in the US by fertility clinics. No doubt the Bush Administration is lining up nice stable, affluent WASP couples (I noticed there were no black faces amongst the photo opportunity) to adopt every single one of them.

If not, why not? Don’t they all deserve a shot at life, George? It would solve the cheap labour crisis at a stroke. Or NASA could just pack the embryos in a rocket and send them off to look for another life-supporting planet like in Arthur C Clarke’s Songs of Distant Earth.

Get thawing and get gestating, George. Leave no child behind.