By JIM VANDEHEI
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy -- Pope John Paul II, weighing in on the raging U.S. debate over stem-cell research, pressed President Bush to bar medical experimentation using human embryos.
"A free and virtuous society, which America aspires to be, must reject practices that devalue and violate human life at any stage from conception until natural death," the pope said.
The pontiff's plea could complicate both the president's courting of Catholic voters and his decision on whether to allow the government to fund research using stem cells extracted from embryos, a process that destroys the embryo. The 81-year-old pope didn't specifically mention the U.S. controversy over stem-cell research, but his message was clear: A fertilized egg, from which such stem cells are derived, constitutes a human life, whether in the womb or outside it.
Reading a statement after meeting privately with Mr. Bush at the papal summer residence, the pope said: "Experience is already showing how a tragic coarsening of consciences accompanies the assault on innocent human life in the womb, leading to accommodation and acquiescence in the face of other related evils, such as euthanasia, infanticide, and most recently, proposals for the creation for research purposes of human embryos, destined to destruction in the process."
The pope, who has made clear his opposition to the death penalty -- which Mr. Bush adamantly favors -- also called on America to set an example "through a vibrant culture of life."
Mr. Bush has said he believes life begins at conception, but has refused to say if he believes an embryo outside the womb constitutes a living being.
The president, who spoke after the pope, didn't touch on the stem-cell issue. When pressed by reporters, Mr. Bush said he will "continue to listen to points of view and make up my mind when I am ready to."
"I do care about the opinions of people, particularly someone as profound as the Holy Father," he said.
Some in the pro-research camp took a bit of hope from the fact the pope's statement didn't zero in on Mr. Bush's most pressing decision: Whether to support research using frozen embryos left over at fertility clinics. But Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, said research advocates "know that the pope is just as opposed to killing frozen embryos as he is to creating embryos in order to kill them for research."
White House aides said last week that Mr. Bush would decide whether to permit federal funding shortly after he returns Wednesday. But Monday they said it isn't clear when the president would take a position, and that while he respects the pope's position, it is unlikely to tilt his decision.
Embryonic stem cells are primitive building-block cells that can develop into any of the human body's specialized cells. Scientists believe stem cells someday will be used in treating such diseases as juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Many administration officials believe Mr. Bush is looking for a compromise that would allow for a limited number of frozen human embryos to be used for research under a strict set of guidelines.
One of his top advisers and close friends, Republican Sen. Bill Frist, a doctor from Tennessee, recently announced his support of a compromise along these lines; Republicans have said Mr. Frist was testing the water for Mr. Bush.
After Mr. Frist announced his plan, 61 senators, including several antiabortion Republicans, sent a letter to Mr. Bush endorsing government-backed embryonic stem-cell research.
But the president's top political adviser, Karl Rove, among others, has warned of a backlash among antiabortion activists if the president backs even tightly limited research.
Mr. Bush knows the country's 62 million Catholics represent a pivotal swing vote. The candidate who won a majority of the Catholic vote captured the presidency in seven of the past eight elections; Mr. Bush was the exception, narrowly losing among Catholic voters to Al Gore in 2000.
Mr. Bush has spent considerable time wooing Catholic leaders, who tend to be more conservative on abortion and stem-cell research than many of the church's rank-and-file members.
The Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, which favors stem-cell research, said it hoped Mr. Bush "will remember the suffering of 100 million Americans with debilitating or life-threatening diseases and injuries, and the promise that this scientific research holds for them."
But Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a leading opponent of embryonic research, said he hopes the pope's view "was persuasive to the president, but we have no way of knowing how influential his comments will be."
-- Laurie McGinley contributed to this article.